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

[tvbcof]

...
I am starting to wonder why any bitcoin related company would provide a presence on this trollpit - it's gotta be worse for business to announce on this forum, than to simply ignore bitcointalk.
...

I suspect that in a lot of cases it's because the forum population is rich in 'marks'.

[Unacceptable]

I refuse to read anything and you can't make me, lol.  There may be other miners but who wrote the driver itself? Just being paranoid...wait no, it's not called paranoid, it's called being involved in bitcoin lol.

Well,too bad if you aren't willing to educate yourself before spouting off  

If this your involvement in Bitcoin,I'd hate to see your involvement in your family  

[greyhawk]

Guys, I think we should stop asking questions. It could be.... unhealthy. To our health.

Consider this:

Sonny is a decidedly Italian name.

Vleisides is a decidedly Grecian name.

It follows logically that his origins are in Calabria, Italy.

Combining this information and the fact that he was running a 1930s mobster style numbers racket it follows that this is a 'Ndrangheta operation.

[the_thing]

Guys, I think we should stop asking questions. It could be.... unhealthy. To our health.

Consider this:

Sonny is a decidedly Italian name.

Vleisides is a decidedly Grecian name.

It follows logically that his origins are in Calabria, Italy.

Combining this information and the fact that he was running a 1930s mobster style numbers racket it follows that this is a 'Ndrangheta operation.

[JMAHH]

Guys, I think we should stop asking questions. It could be.... unhealthy. To our health.

Consider this:

Sonny is a decidedly Italian name.

Vleisides is a decidedly Grecian name.

It follows logically that his origins are in Calabria, Italy.

Combining this information and the fact that he was running a 1930s mobster style numbers racket it follows that this is a 'Ndrangheta operation.

And he has made us an ASIC we can't refuse.

[the_thing]

Guys, I think we should stop asking questions. It could be.... unhealthy. To our health.

Consider this:

Sonny is a decidedly Italian name.

Vleisides is a decidedly Grecian name.

It follows logically that his origins are in Calabria, Italy.

Combining this information and the fact that he was running a 1930s mobster style numbers racket it follows that this is a 'Ndrangheta operation.

And he has made us an ASIC we can't refuse.

"Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWqKPWO5T4o

[elux]

Guys, I think we should stop asking questions. It could be.... unhealthy. To our health.
...
It follows logically that his origins are in Calabria, Italy.

Combining this information and the fact that he was running a 1930s mobster style numbers racket it follows that this is a 'Ndrangheta operation.

Does not follow at all. Still there's this:

I feel quite uneasy about posting the following pieces, but it's all publicly available, verifiable information, and perhaps of some interest.

Dennis Emmet, who worked for Vleisides murdered Benjamin Daniel Wood, who worked for Emmet.

One certainly shouldn't draw any conclusions, or make any assumptions, or implications from the following, but it is what it is...

21. Glenda Emmet, when interviewed, stated the following:
a.   Emmett was the owner of Astro Computer, which operated a mail list business. This included maintaining lists and preparing the letters to be mailed out by a mail house.
b.   For five or six years, her only customer was Global Search Network, which was run by her ex-husband, Dennis Emmett. Dennis Emmett is now in prison in Costa Rica for murder, but was still issuing instructions to her from prison. Before she worked for Global Search Network, she worked for World Expert Fund. That company was owned by VLEISIDES. Her ex-husband, Dennis Emmett, worked with World Expert Fund for some time in Costa Rica.

The murder doesn't seem obviously "work related", judging by the media reports. I also can't easily tell whether Emmet worked for Vleisides at the time of the killing.

Per Costa Rican media:

U.S. Citizen Linked to Murder

A U.S. citizen identified only by his family name, Emmett, 67, is held suspect of the murder of his fellow countryman , 33, whose body was found with a bullet in an eye near Turrucares, Alajuela.

It was Wood's Costa Rican girlfriend who alerted the police about the possibility of Emmett's involvement in the murder.

Wood used to work for Emmett in a house and a business property of the elder man.

http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2005/may/01/nac04.htm

U.S. citizen's body was dumped
Guards heard dispute and then a shot at quinta
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

A loud argument about 10 p.m. Thursday was cut short by a gunshot, and investigators think that is when Benjamin Daniel Wood, a 33-year-old U.S. citizen died.

The scene was at the quinta of the two people now being held in the death, according to investigators. The argument and the shot were heard by guards outside.

The full extent of the crime did not become apparent until about 9 a.m. Friday when passers-by discovered the body of a man near a lookout point in the community of San Miguel de Turrúcares.

http://www.amcostarica.com/041905.htm

This last week was not a 'good news' week for Americans in Costa Rica.

An American identified only by his family name, Emmett, 67, was held suspect of the murder of his 33 year old fellow countryman Benjamin Daniel Wood, 33, whose body was found with a bullet in his eye near Turrucares, Alajuela. It was Wood's Costa Rican girlfriend who alerted the police about the possibility of Emmett's involvement in the murder.

According to investigators Wood used to work for Emmett in a house and a business property of the older man.
The murder of Wood, supposedly occurred after Emmet aged 67 had an explosive argument with his 24 year old South American girlfriend.

http://www.welovecostarica.com/public/210.cfm

Also:

Lottery scam indictment dismissed against California man
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Prosecutors have dismissed an indictment against Scott Henry Walther, who was indicted in 2007 stemming from his association with a Costa Rican-based lottery scam, according to documents and an assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District of California.

...

According to Ms. Lindsay, Walther's case was delayed when his lawyer fell ill and died. With no representative to meet with, prosecutors were unsure of Walther's role, if any, in the scheme.

When the lawyer died, U.S. officials were prevented from getting Walther's story until after the indictment Ms.
Lindsay said, “As a prosecutor you'd like to hear both sides based on all the evidence you can possibly get, and with Scott Walther we felt ambivalent because the evidence against him looked really, really bad” at first.

Walther, who brought the dismissal to the attention of reporters, was one of six men indicted in the fraud case. Henry Walther, Scott Walther's father, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and international money laundering March 6, 2007. Henry Walther currently is serving time.

Charges against Dennis Emmett, William Cloud, James Ray Houston and Sonny Vleisides remain. Emmett is being extradited to the United States from Costa Rica, said Ms. Lindsay, and Vleisides is being extradicted from Italy. Cloud is also being extradited from Amsterdam, and Houston has not been apprehended, according to Ms. Lindsay.

http://amcostarica.com/061008.htm

Emmet was perhaps squeezed out before Sonny took over the family business, after an argument with his father:

Henry Walther explained that the main people involved in the lottery were Houston, VLEISIDES, and Dennis Emmett.
The business started with Houston and Emmett. Houston was the principal behind it. Cloud is Houston's brother or halfbrother, and lives in Amsterdam.

About five years ago, Houston and Dennis Emmett got into an argument and split their businesses. Then, Houston and VLEISIDES got into an argument, and VLEISIDES took over the business.

Still, Dennis Emmet continued to work for Sonny according to Emmet's wife, per the first testimony above.

[elux]

Oh, and I'll be posting only positive things about Butterfly Labs from now on.

[Bitinvestor]

Oh, and I'll be posting only positive things about Butterfly Labs from now on.

Great! Me too!

[the_thing]

So after numerous scams, now we also have a murder here. That's wonderful!

[Rassah]

I think all of this ^^^^^ only suggests that BFL ASICs are a good investment, because any likely competition will probably run into *ahem* problems. 

[Desolator]

I think it'll turn out that all 3 or 4 or whatever ASIC manufacturers are going to turn out to be owned by the same company: Pepsi, lol.

[bitcoinBull]

Oh, and I'll be posting only positive things about Butterfly Labs from now on.

holy satoshi. good work elux.

[Robert Goldstein]

And then there's the whole Laissez Fair City (LFC) thing, but I can't make sense of the scattered references I'm seeing. Can someone summarize it for me?

The definitive history of the Laissez Faire City project, written nearly ten years ago, is here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20021210112835/http://www.scamdog.com/freedom_projects/?view=laissez_faire_city

(The shorter article in Spanish mentioned here is based on it.)

Laissez Faire City is no more. The gates to the Trustee's office in Costa Rica have closed for the last time, and the people have gone away. And the end did not come gently. There was great dissent, some of which continues to this time. (November 2002.)

This is not to say that what was produced by those working on the Laissez Faire City (LFCity) project is gone. The work continues of building freedom in cyberspace, but without coordinated planning or financing. Individual profit-seeking businesses are continuing the work, which is probably better for the cause of liberty in the long run.
...
We will not be naming names, except in the few cases where names were officially published. Since we do not judge LFCity to have been a scam (and with ostracism of the bad actors already occurring), the only people benefiting from revealing names would be government agencies wishing to end the freedom tools movement.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Unless I'm mistaken (I searched this forum), this has not been presented before. http://pastebin.com/kscYYjfg

(10pt font within quote tags for readability)

butterfly labs inc. has no public records or anything to prove its a real world business

step one - anonymity when registering web address
http://who.godaddy.com/whois.aspx?domain=butterflylabs.com&prog_id=GoDaddy

step two - their PO POX address for a state that has no record of them

step three - their trademarks are not listed on government search (TESS search)
http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp
closest thing that is BFL Inc is a emergency shelter company.

step four - they publicise they are in Kansas MO.. but the state records cant find them
https://www.sos.mo.gov/BusinessEntity/soskb/csearch.asp

step five - the telephone number 816 226 6966
is not a business line, its a residential line registered to the address:
Chambers Lofts
25 E 12 St #804
Kansas City, MO 64106

step six - address found via telephone
indeed is a kansas address which coincides with their PO-BOX but the address is a residential building of one bedroom one bathroom apartments above some shops
http://www.americanlisted.com/missouri_25/apartments_27/594_1br_chambers_lofts_downtown_kc_13650906.html

step seven - the biggest slip up by BFL rep on bitcointalk
random people investigating found a close 'corporation listing' to BFL which is based in Wyoming called BF labs Inc.

BFL quoted on bitcointalk soon after
<quote>
Post by: BFL on November 15, 2011, 03:19:40 PM
Hi guys.
Corporate registry - The company is a 'C' corp registered in the state of Wyoming as BF Labs Inc.  Why Wyoming when you're not based there?  Mostly due to it's favorable tax and legal climate.
</qoute>

trying to convince users that the closest INC listing to BFL which a user found is theirs without actually realising the initial user who found the wyoming listing made a mistake and did not look into the Wyoming company before publishing the record.

the mistake is this.. they didnt check to see what the wyoming company actually does. they just seen a close enough name to it and posted it, then BFL said its them without also checking into how plausible they could get away with saying its the same company.

well here is the listing:
https://wyobiz.wy.gov/Business/FilingDetails.aspx?eFNum=149144214231010201167112190255028042109060235081
file number 2011-000606261

step eight - BF labs inc is a registered and trademarked company but they are BIOTECH Frontiers Lab
http://www.lookupbook.com/profile/healthcare-biotech/wy/casper/bf-labs-inc

they make and maintain medical equipment such as freezers, sterilisers centrifuges etc.

When BFL spokesperson on bitcointalk suggested that they are the wyoming listing due to the lack of digging one of the bitcoin community done to realise it was a different company. made me laugh, then for BFL to not look at the listing enough to realise that its nothing like their business, and just say yes thats us, in a rash judgement to gain credibility without genuine first person identification made me laugh more.

step nine - the common vouching that its real
bitcointalk user: inuba who owns a pool and who just so happened to work in same street as the BFL residential apartment and the only person claiming to be using ASICS is now working for them.

its far easier to beleive he and his cohorts used the $600 deposits to pay for many standard GPU rigs.. link them all to one worker and claim that its ASIC's.

step ten- read the whole thread here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=printpage;topic=48863.0
including BFLs omission that they are a steriliser production company for the medical industry.

as u can see by the dates in thread, it was proven in november 2011 they are fake. yet people still wait for their products.

[Inaba]

That is Franky1's tinfoil hat pastebin.  Most of it is either completely fabricated or so twisted from reality as to be meaningless.

[MrTeal]

That line of reasoning makes no sense. Chris Vleisides is listed as the President/Director of BF Labs, INC. That's a pretty huge coincidence for some random company to happen to have him as a director.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

http://www.lookupbook.com/profile/healthcare-biotech/wy/casper/bf-labs-inc

BF LABS INC
5830 E 2Nd St
Casper, WY  82609
Phone: Not Available
Acquired: 08/2011 from Wyoming Secty of State
Edit This Listing
About This Listing

Heading: HEALTHCARE/BIOTECH
Heading description: Hospital and laboratory equipment service, biomedical service, laboratory service, ultra low freezers service, equipment repair, equipment calibration, biotech equipment maintenance, biotech service contracts, sterilizers.

Why is the heading as such?

~Bruno~

[Rassah]

Yep, that was pasted on this forum at least two or three times already.
Note the last few lines. BFL is claiming that they don't have any ASICs yet, so the line about them using the money to buy mining hardware and claim that it's ASICs is ridiculous. Likewise, even though "it was proven in november 2011 they are fake," it was proven in Spring of 2012 that they are not when they finally shipped products.
I have no comments on the rest of the stuff, other than to say that it's so common, it's almost expected for companies to incorporate somewhere other than their home state (most incorporate in Delaware, which has a higher population of corporations than people), and it's not unexpected for a company to have two types of products, or even get established to do one thing, and find something more profitable along the way (set up to make medical imaging FPGAs, realized there's more money in BTC mining). It may even be that BFL simply wanted the BFL name, and their only option was to buy an established corp. But that's just my speculation. Point is, those items quoted are not proofs of a scam, but instead are just proofs that there are more questions.

[greyhawk]

Step 5 is demonstrably false. BFLs phone number is registered to a sprint mobile phone, not to whereever the poster is claiming.