Re: Butterfly Labs CEO 25 Million USD Mail Fraud — A Concise Summary of Evidence

[Bitcoin Oz]

This reminds me of that Woody Allen movie where they open a cookie shop next to a bank to set up cover while they tried to tunnel into the vault. Meanwhile the cookie shop takes off as a successful business and they are stuck in a quandary as to whether they should rob the bank or not...

What title it is?
I want to watch it.

I don't know about any Woody Allen movie like that but it sounds a lot like Larceny, Inc. (1942)
with Edward G. Robinson and lot of other talent. 

"Three ex-cons buy a luggage shop to tunnel into the bank vault next door. But despite all they can do, the shop prospers..."

I do recommend it.

Maybe Woody Allen did a remake of this. 

 

"Small time crooks"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196216/

[Portnoy]

This reminds me of that Woody Allen movie where they open a cookie shop next to a bank to set up cover while they tried to tunnel into the vault. Meanwhile the cookie shop takes off as a successful business and they are stuck in a quandary as to whether they should rob the bank or not...

What title it is?
I want to watch it.

I don't know about any Woody Allen movie like that but it sounds a lot like Larceny, Inc. (1942)
with Edward G. Robinson and lot of other talent. 

"Three ex-cons buy a luggage shop to tunnel into the bank vault next door. But despite all they can do, the shop prospers..."

I do recommend it.

Maybe Woody Allen did a remake of this. 

 

"Small time crooks"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196216/

Yup, thanks.  I just noticed this at the Larceny, Inc. page:

...It's a pretty ancient tale. Thieves getting into a store next to a bank in order to break through the wall into the vault. The first time I remember coming across it was in a Sherlock Holmes tale, "The Red Headed League," and I doubt it was original with Conan-Doyle. This is the earliest movie about such a caper that I'm aware of. But later there was "Big Deal on Madonna Street" and most recently Woody Allan's "Small Time Crooks," which duplicated some of the incidents as well as the general idea. (The thieves break open a water pipe while digging the tunnel; the original plan fizzles out when the phony business upstairs becomes an economic bonanza.) It's a well-done and highly entertaining comedy with the usual roster of Warners' stalwarts at their best. The kind of movie about which you can truly say, "They don't make 'em like that anymore."...

[Bitcoin Oz]

This reminds me of that Woody Allen movie where they open a cookie shop next to a bank to set up cover while they tried to tunnel into the vault. Meanwhile the cookie shop takes off as a successful business and they are stuck in a quandary as to whether they should rob the bank or not...

What title it is?
I want to watch it.

I don't know about any Woody Allen movie like that but it sounds a lot like Larceny, Inc. (1942)
with Edward G. Robinson and lot of other talent. 

"Three ex-cons buy a luggage shop to tunnel into the bank vault next door. But despite all they can do, the shop prospers..."

I do recommend it.

Maybe Woody Allen did a remake of this. 

 

"Small time crooks"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196216/

Yup, thanks.  I just noticed this at the Larceny, Inc. page:

...It's a pretty ancient tale. Thieves getting into a store next to a bank in order to break through the wall into the vault. The first time I remember coming across it was in a Sherlock Holmes tale, "The Red Headed League," and I doubt it was original with Conan-Doyle. This is the earliest movie about such a caper that I'm aware of. But later there was "Big Deal on Madonna Street" and most recently Woody Allan's "Small Time Crooks," which duplicated some of the incidents as well as the general idea. (The thieves break open a water pipe while digging the tunnel; the original plan fizzles out when the phony business upstairs becomes an economic bonanza.) It's a well-done and highly entertaining comedy with the usual roster of Warners' stalwarts at their best. The kind of movie about which you can truly say, "They don't make 'em like that anymore."...

Many years ago we had a similar thing happen here but a drug lord opened a fish and chip shop as a front for his drug business. No ne could ever work out how they stayed in business because their food was disgusting,untill the got raided and it came out in court. I think its a time honoured way to launder ill gotten gains.

[szuetam]

Wouldn't it be funny if they were able to scam everyone out of their upgrade money, then on top of that get many of the people to send functional FPGAs back to them so they can run off with the $$$ and a couple TH/s of mining gear to keep the $$$ flowing in afterwards?      

This is a good indicator. Once ASICs come out the FPGAs have much less value - so why would they want them back? Well, because if you get them back but ASICs never ship then you have a huge mining rig with excellent value as ASICs haven't yet pushed up the difficulty.

So not only will you be smarting from not getting your ASICs but you'll have to put up with knowing that the bitcoins you're using are being mined by your very own rigs in the fraudsters hands. Which explains why they didn't mind shipping FPGAs in the first place as they knew they actually having you pay for their own super rig.

Good point.
Is there any good idea what to do with this amount of fpga rigs?
Sell to some government for cracking passwords etc.?

[OgNasty]

This development is concerning.  It reminds me of when someone dug up the pirateat40 check fraud thing long before the default.  People for the most part don't change.  Hopefully legitimate business is more profitable than scamming, or this could spell trouble.

[bittenbob]

Wouldn't it be funny if they were able to scam everyone out of their upgrade money, then on top of that get many of the people to send functional FPGAs back to them so they can run off with the $$$ and a couple TH/s of mining gear to keep the $$$ flowing in afterwards?      

This is a good indicator. Once ASICs come out the FPGAs have much less value - so why would they want them back? Well, because if you get them back but ASICs never ship then you have a huge mining rig with excellent value as ASICs haven't yet pushed up the difficulty.

So not only will you be smarting from not getting your ASICs but you'll have to put up with knowing that the bitcoins you're using are being mined by your very own rigs in the fraudsters hands. Which explains why they didn't mind shipping FPGAs in the first place as they knew they actually having you pay for their own super rig.

Good point.
Is there any good idea what to do with this amount of fpga rigs?
Sell to some government for cracking passwords etc.?

FPGA=Field Programmable Gate Array

Bitcoins aren't the first or only thing they are used for. They have a great second life for a variety of uses including medical research. There is a much greater post Bitcoin resale value in FPGAs then ASICs which would essentially become useless.

[bitcool]

Once an action taken, most people tend to be in denial even facing hard facts.

[szuetam]

Wow is it possible that GigaVPS could get scammed twice? Once by pirate and once by BFL?

Simple answer: Of course  it is possible.

[szuetam]

Wouldn't it be funny if they were able to scam everyone out of their upgrade money, then on top of that get many of the people to send functional FPGAs back to them so they can run off with the $$$ and a couple TH/s of mining gear to keep the $$$ flowing in afterwards?      

This is a good indicator. Once ASICs come out the FPGAs have much less value - so why would they want them back? Well, because if you get them back but ASICs never ship then you have a huge mining rig with excellent value as ASICs haven't yet pushed up the difficulty.

So not only will you be smarting from not getting your ASICs but you'll have to put up with knowing that the bitcoins you're using are being mined by your very own rigs in the fraudsters hands. Which explains why they didn't mind shipping FPGAs in the first place as they knew they actually having you pay for their own super rig.

Good point.
Is there any good idea what to do with this amount of fpga rigs?
Sell to some government for cracking passwords etc.?

FPGA=Field Programmable Gate Array

Bitcoins aren't the first or only thing they are used for. They have a great second life for a variety of uses including medical research. There is a much greater post Bitcoin resale value in FPGAs then ASICs which would essentially become useless.

Yes, i know, but it's not so easy so sell such a amount of it with certain configuration (hardware) and without loosing money I think.

But it's just a guess, do you have some background about non bitcoin FPGA market to state it is not like that??

[szuetam]

Once an action taken, most people tend to be in denial even facing hard facts.

Said but true. We are just stubborn animals.


EDIT

It's sad that only small amount of people even as an adults could hold themselves and do not eat that marshmallow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferred_gratification

[goxed]

Awesome detective work! Thanks a bunch for the enlightenment. Caveat Emptor!

[szuetam]

I had a look at LinkedIn to check if the "lead engineer in Paris" happens to be a former student of mine, but I could not find anyone listing "Butterfly Labs" or "ButterflyLabs" as their company. Do they run by another name?

Who are you?
Do you teach sth. about engineering of processors development in Paris?

[smoothie]

I'm still waiting for the CEO of BFL to make an official statement to the OP and surrounding evidence.

If he avoids it, I would assume at some point he will scam you.

We all make mistakes and if he can honestly address it that shows character.

We will see...tick tock tick tock 

[niko]

I'm still waiting for the CEO of BFL to make an official statement to the OP and surrounding evidence.

If he avoids it, I would assume at some point he will scam you.

We all make mistakes and if he can honestly address it that shows character.

We will see...tick tock tick tock 

What mistakes?! He operated for many years, I don't see how that can be called a "mistake".

[tvbcof]

.... and Sonny Boy was a major player of Laissez Faire City. Hell, I even learned that two guys committed suicide over this project. (long, but full of shit) http://www.offshorealert.com/forums.aspx?g=posts&t=37064
...

"full of shit"?!  Some of the stuff was comedy gold.  The second post sucked me in for a while before my attention wandered:

"""
... Took 5 servers to run? And it still failed, often.
Got something you want the whole world to know? Use Mailvault!

...

Then there is Wolf DeVoon, a wannabe lawyer and his site, ...
The soulful pictures of a luser who has left a trail of unpaid debts and broken promises are just too much!

Oh wait! I have some similarly soulful photos of Houston, before the cocaine stole his boyish looks.
There he sits, staring off into a future just filled with other peoples money. Brings a tear to your eye.
Anyone want to see them?
When compared to the after pics...excuse ME.. er.. wedding pictures taken last year. Well, the
antidrug program missed a sure thing when they passed these up. Talk about scared straight!
"""

[Phinnaeus Gage]

.... and Sonny Boy was a major player of Laissez Faire City. Hell, I even learned that two guys committed suicide over this project. (long, but full of shit) http://www.offshorealert.com/forums.aspx?g=posts&t=37064
...

"full of shit"?!  Some of the stuff was comedy gold.  The second post sucked me in for a while before my attention wandered:

"""
... Took 5 servers to run? And it still failed, often.
Got something you want the whole world to know? Use Mailvault!

...

Then there is Wolf DeVoon, a wannabe lawyer and his site, ...
The soulful pictures of a luser who has left a trail of unpaid debts and broken promises are just too much!

Oh wait! I have some similarly soulful photos of Houston, before the cocaine stole his boyish looks.
There he sits, staring off into a future just filled with other peoples money. Brings a tear to your eye.
Anyone want to see them?
When compared to the after pics...excuse ME.. er.. wedding pictures taken last year. Well, the
antidrug program missed a sure thing when they passed these up. Talk about scared straight!
"""

It's better than that! https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=110916.msg1208744#msg1208744

I opted to follow through on LFC with another thread, for some of what I'm finding is related to this thread, while other stuff is not.

BTW, when I penned shit above, I meant it as other stuff.

~Bruno~

[smoothie]

its like the Nigerian scam e-mails almost. Oh its so lulz...

HOw many Jalapenos did you preorder? lol

[the_thing]

ISHYGDDT

[crazy_rabbit]

I'm still waiting for the CEO of BFL to make an official statement to the OP and surrounding evidence.

If he avoids it, I would assume at some point he will scam you.

We all make mistakes and if he can honestly address it that shows character.

We will see...tick tock tick tock 

Didn't they already address this? They admitted it, no?  They said they weren't trying to hide anything.

[greyhawk]

I'm still waiting for the CEO of BFL to make an official statement to the OP and surrounding evidence.

If he avoids it, I would assume at some point he will scam you.

We all make mistakes and if he can honestly address it that shows character.

We will see...tick tock tick tock 

Didn't they already address this? They admitted it, no?  They said they weren't trying to hide anything.

If by "admit" you mean "describing what is basically a 1930s numbers racket and failing to understand how that would be illegal, then floundering around and telling family stories", then yes, they did "admit" it.