BITCLUB NETWORK: Prison is not the place to be right now

[El Guapo]

According to court records, Goettsche played a major role in shaping the revenue structure of BitClub Network, which called for splitting the investors’ money three ways: 20 percent for operating expenses, 40 percent for commissions, and 40 percent going to pay for mining equipment.

https://www.westword.com/news/bitclub-network-was-too-big-to-fail-but-cost-investors-722-million-11642618

Mining Bitcoins (especially after the first halving from 25 to 12.5) is not blazingly lucrative:  providing maybe a 20% profit margin, IIRC.  It is simply not credible that Joby, or any other BCN promoter, could rationally believe that mining Bitcoins could be done at a 20% operating expense, leaving the remaining 80% of investors' money available for commissions and new equipment. 

From his own emails, Joby knew (or at least suspected) in the summer of 2017 that BCN investor capital was not paying for new mining equipment.  Did he try to correct the sham, expose it, or at least warn others?  No.  He continued to hawk BCN so he could land at Country #100+.

"Fraud is an act of deliberate deception with a design to secure something, which is otherwise not due.  The expression “fraud” involves two elements, deceit and injury to the person deceived. It is a cheating intended to get an advantage. Fraud is proved when it is shown that a false representation has been made (i) knowingly, or (ii) without belief in its truth, or (iii) recklessly, careless whether it be true or false."

In fact, "recklessly, careless whether it be true or false" is probably the best synopsis of Joby Weeks' character regarding BCN. 

Worse still, this snitch-narc-rat tried to save his own reckless skin by feeding his Perpetual Traveler compatriots to the IRS:

Last spring, Weeks contacted the Internal Revenue Service and met with two of its agents in Washington, D.C. He admitted that he might have some tax problems, having not filed tax returns for several years. The agents thought that sounded pretty serious. Weeks suggested that he could bring far more serious cases to their attention, working undercover for them among the international cryptocurrency crowd he knew so well.

“He was trying to convince the agents that he might serve — in his words — as a ‘Jason Bourne’ of cryptocurrency,” one court pleading notes.

https://www.westword.com/news/bitclub-network-was-too-big-to-fail-but-cost-investors-722-million-11642618

What is it about libertarians that seems to attract such con-men?
Jeff Berwick (Galt's Gulch), Simon Black, Adam Kokesh, Joby Weeks and BCN, etc.

This shit is really getting old.

This forum had been trying since 2015 to warn you about BCN.  Maybe folks will pay a little more attention next time.
When something sounds too good to be true ("a machine that prints money"), it is.  Caveat Emptor, y'all.

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[tmfp]

Goettsche and Weeks attempted (surprise surprise) to use COVID as a reason for being released from prison, and were both denied.
There's apparently a policy in the U.S. at the moment to release "petty" offenders because of the virus.
Weeks continues to pretend that's all he was

None of the articles cited by Weeks regarding efforts to reduce prison populations deal with inmates like Weeks, who have already been found to be a flight risk (twice) and who are charged with very serious offenses carrying significant guidelines ranges.

and throws in a pre existing asthma condition for good measure.
Didn't work.

Weeks did not report this condition during his medical intake at ECCF, or on a health form he submitted for a mountain climbing trip to Antarctica.
His asthma did not prevent Weeks from traveling all over the world, including to remote locations that presumably lacked standard respiratory treatment, and engaging in strenuous activities at altitude like heli-skiing and mountain climbing.
The point is not that Weeks does not have asthma.
Rather, it is that he did not report suffering from asthma or have a prescription for asthma treatment until COVID-19 surfaced.

Goettsche's application was simply that the reduction in scheduled airline activity made him less of a flight risk.
The DoJ pointed out that he has huge amounts of unaccounted for money that he stole from Bitclub investors and an involved brother who is still out there.
Judge Hammer found it

... concerning, for example, that Goettsche referred to having made “hundreds of mil[lions] in the past two years,” id., and that his accounts are “scattered throughout the world and very possibly beyond the reach of the Government to seize.”
Implicit in that holding is Judge Hammer’s valid concern that Goettsche would use his “vast sums of money,” to leave the country rather than have a jury consider an array of evidence that includes his own “inculpatory” statements.
Despite the Government’s requests, Goettsche still has not filled the roughly $30 million gap between his self-disclosed assets and an accounting prepared by his accountant in August 2019.

Jo Abel doesn't seem to have bothered to ask for release,  Silviu Balaci is still in jail in Frankfurt awaiting U.S. extradition and Russ Medlin is still out there, no doubt indulging the tastes for which he was placed on the Nevada Sex Offenders register, and protected from arrest by liberal dispersion of bribes and payoffs.
Other B list BitClub promoters who made $$$$ thru the MLM system appear to be of no interest to law enforcement.

Thanks for case update summary, OZ. Also below.


Fat Lawyer One Coin Scammer Mark Scott was more successful in a similar hearing, being released to one of the homes he bought with stolen money.
His bullshit health worries appeared to have convinced the judge that he's not a flight risk despite holding dual citizenship with a country which doesn't extradite to the U.S. (Germany).

He has provided limited support for his claim that his health condition renders him especially vulnerable to COVID-19.
Specifically, Scott relies on a vague one-page doctor’s letter stating that Scott “has hypertension and was in the process of ongoing a cardiac workup.

He was only in prison because he broke the terms of his previous bail, by going out on the town with his bodyguards.
His buying and selling of Porsches and property doesn't seem to be considered unusual.

While released on bail, in or about July 2019, Scott sold a 2016 Porsche (the “2016 Porsche”) for $250,000.
 Scott did so with full knowledge that he had purchased the 2016 Porsche with OneCoin victim money and that the 2016 Porsche was subject to both a seizure warrant— which was produced to the defendant in discovery in October 2018—and a Forfeiture Bill of Particulars (the “Forfeiture BOP”) —which was filed with the Court and served on the defendant in February 2019.
    While released on bail Scott also used $300,000 in OneCoin victim proceeds that were subject to a restraining order to pay for renovations to his (Massachusetts) property.
    Furthermore, Scott mortgaged the (Massachusetts) Property—which he had also purchased with OneCoin proceeds, and which was also subject to the Forfeiture BOP—to a creditor, specifically, a contracting business performing work on the (Massachusetts) Property.

He is the walking embodiment of a fat, disgusting cunt. (apologies to my overweight friends)

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Scumbag Russ Medlin has finally been arrested in Indonesia.

https://www.suara.com/news/2020/06/16/104728/polda-metro-tangkap-buronan-fbi-russ-medlin

The rest of the thieves aren't having it much better, either....

Despite his "I'm too cool for jail" applications, Joby Weeks remains in a Covid infested, don't drop the soap Federal jail until at least the end of next month, whilst Matthew Goettsche appears to have been ripped off to the tune of forteen million stolen Bitclub dollars, in the form of a failed investment in an Australian Little Caesars Pizza franchise.

What a shame.

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More details of the arrest of a/the principal actor in the BitClub scam Saga, Russ Medlin.



But not for fraud, for fucking young kids.....

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3089307/us-bitcoin-fugitive-russ-medlin-arrested-sex-charges

Hardly surprising, given his history, his cocaine habit and the large amount of money he stole.

According to the Nevada State sex offender public website, Russ Albert Medlin was listed as a “non compliant” tier-two offender – the second most serious – with a Las Vegas address.

Live in hope, die in despair I know, but just maybe some of the associated BitClub scum like J. Ryan Conley and Joby Weeks, both of whom have young daughters, might like to reflect on the way they enabled this walking piece of shit to gratify himself.

[CucakRowo]

The arrest was based on his crime committed in Indonesia, pedophilia. For fraud, already alluded to in this article:

Link : https://www.msn.com/id-id/berita/nasional/fakta-fakta-penangkapan-russ-medlin-buronan-fbi-yang-ditangkap-polda-metro/ar-BB15zYfc

Although Indonesia-US doesn't have an extradition treaty, but based on previous facts, usually the fugitive after being caught by the Indonesian police. they will be returned to US. Article : https://www.merdeka.com/peristiwa/indonesia-ekstradisi-buronan-amerika-tersangka-kasus-penipuan.html

[blurryeyed]

But not for fraud, for fucking young kids.....

Prison is too good for him & his ilk. I hope they keep him locked up in some filthy, dirty hell hole in Indonesia for a few years before they extradite him to a "nice" prison in the States.

Rot in Hell Russ Medlin.

Thanks for the updates @tmfp.

[tmfp]

Bitcoin scammer and convicted pedophile Russ Medlin regularly sexually exploited minors during his time in Jakarta, police said, as more information has come to light following his arrest.

Speaking to the press yesterday, Jakarta Metro Police spokesman Yusri Yunus revealed that Medlin made sex tapes with underage girls in his South Jakarta home.

“When he was having sex [with one victim], he asked another victim to film,” Yusri said.

“His modus operandi was the same. He would film every time, including here in Indonesia. The victims and the culprit himself confessed to this. We found the evidence [in his phone].”

Medlin is wanted in the US by the FBI for his alleged role in defrauding investors out of US$722 million using a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme dubbed the world’s biggest bitcoin scam.

Interpol also flagged Medlin as a child molester who had been convicted for the crime twice, in 2006 and 2008, the latter of which saw him serve two years in prison for the statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl and possession of child pornography.

The Jakarta Metro Police has charged Medlin with sexual assault on minors, which carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence. There is no official extradition treaty between the US and Indonesia, so it remains to be seen if a deal could be worked out between the two countries so Medlin could answer for his alleged massive financial scam in his home country. 

https://coconuts.co/jakarta/news/convicted-pedophile-russ-medlin-made-sex-tapes-with-underage-victims-in-jakarta-police/

Prison population total (including pre-trial detainees / remand prisoners)   
210 693
Official capacity of prison system   
132 645
Occupancy level (based on official capacity)   
158.3%
Foreign prisoners (percentage of prison population)   
0.4%
Pre-trial detainees / remand prisoners (percentage of prison population)   
23.3%
 

Sounds nice.....
His stolen money will probably come in handy.

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Mr Entitled, a.k.a. Joby "Thief and Liar" Weeks is very determined to get out of his probably COVID infested remand prison, especially since the case has been declared "complex" with vast amounts of data to be processed by both sides, if this is true

The jail has reduced visitation hours and prevented lawyers from talking to their clients except through glass windows and an intra-facility video screen, 20 minutes at a time.
This makes it far harder to review and analyze electronic evidence; holding a laptop up to the glass is an absurd way to review millions of pages of documents.

His personal appeal to Trump fell on deaf ears, so he's disputing the facts behind the decision to reject his earlier bail application, running to 48 pages...

Among the disputed reasons are "his personal relationship with Russ Medlin". eewww.

Weeks asserts he “does not have a friendly relationship with” Medlin.
Their relationship soured two years ago, when Medlin became angry with Mr. Weeks over delays in the build-out of a data mining center in Montana, and Mr. Weeks was cheated out of a business opportunity.

This doting father Weeks (he flew his newly born daughter to all the U.S. states in 42 days. Paid for by BitClub investors) would absolutely have known about Medlin's past child sex conviction, and as his recent arrest is for that very thing, it is obvious that Medlin was an active predator on other people's daughters, whilst he flew round and round the world, signing up BitClub suckers.
That was ok with Libertarian Weeks, but when Medlin (allegedly) rips him off for some money, he becomes persona non grata.

Bitfury get a mention, as does AnarchaPulco where Weeks boasted on that infamous Soundcloud recording I parsed here.

Weeks is full of "we's" and "ours" and for all the world is talking about his company BitClub Network buying vast amounts of sometimes non existent mining equipment from BitFury, going to be "the biggest in the world", blahblah...

We've got 12 PH/s Bitfury containers

Have a listen if you're bored, and contextualise it during a very big growing pain period in Bitcoin's history, just one aspect being CloudMiningMania.
Think Genesis and the Marco's with their Iceland mining (in the early days they kept the BitClub Network banners, logos and tee's in the closet until a bunch of pissed up "Founder" MLMer's were due for their "VIP tour of BCN's" magic machines).
This is also where Roger Ver turns up and so begins the "Roger Ver and BCN saga", which I covered here.
Craig Wright also turns up.
(The Genesis/BCN tie up nearly culminated in a joint passive income MLM bot trader (supposedly designed by Genesis) venture a couple of years later, but something bad happened.)

So it's a bit of a surprise to find that rapidly-slimming FatBoy Weeks maintains that he was in fact only a go-between, being paid millions by BCN to buy from BitFury in their arms race with Antminer.

Evidence presented by the government showed $560 million flowing through a wallet tied to Weeks.
Weeks explains this away by claiming to be “a broker for Bitfury”.
In the ordinary course of that business, Mr. Weeks would accept large transfers of cryptocurrency into his bitcoin wallet as payment for the purchase of cryptocurrency mining equipment.
Mr. Weeks would then remit the cryptocurrency, less his brokering fee, to Bitfury.
The vast majority of funds for these sales that Mr. Weeks arranged between BitClub and Bitfury went to Bitfury; Mr. Weeks did not keep that money for himself.
One example he does provide reveals he earned $5 million on a $58 million dollar sale.
The total amount Weeks earned from over half a billion dollars flowing through his bitcoin wallet is not disclosed.

That's bullshit, some sort of implausible denial that he was an integral part of BCN, front man, money and contacts man and crucial to their success?
Apparently the DoJ have responded to his rebuttal with a 46 page one of their own. And his sorry arse remains inside.

Update liberally stolen from Oz @ https://behindmlm.com/companies/bitclub-network/joby-weeks-unsealed-release-appeal/.

Today's BCN geek's photo is Weeks and his not-travelling-so-much-these-days daughter Liberty* with Ron Paul, for whom Weeks supplied a 55 foot long limo.

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Jobadiah “Joby” Weeks has plead guilty to two counts of BitClub Network related fraud.
As per the terms of a plea agreement reached with the DOJ, Joby Weeks has pled guilty to conspiring to offer and sell unregistered securities and tax evasion.
I don’t recall specific figures pertaining to Weeks’ tax evasion being included in his original BitClub Network indictment.

As per the plea agreement;

Weeks agrees that he willfully evaded tax reporting requirements for the taxable periods 2015 to 2018.
The parties agree that the combined tax loss … is greater than $3,500,000 but less than $9,500,000.

One can imagine Weeks’ anti-government beliefs and use of cryptocurrency played a significant role in him dodging taxes.
The two counts of fraud Weeks has pled guilty two carry consecutive statutory prison sentences of up to five years each. A statutory monetary penalty will also be applied.

The plea agreement also requires Weeks to pay restitution to BitClub Network victims.

Pending Weeks’ satisfying the terms of the plea agreement, the DOJ will not pursue any further BitClub Network or tax fraud actions. This includes dropping the wire fraud count in Weeks’ indictment.
Week’s plea agreement was accepted by the court on November 5th.
On November 6th bond was set at $2 million dollars. To secure his release, four properties in the US belonging to Weeks and family members have been offered as surety.

Pending Weeks providing pre-trial services with a travel itinerary and a custodian arranging to travel with him from New Jersey to Colorado (presumably a family member), Weeks will be released to home incarceration with location monitoring.
Sentencing has been scheduled for March 17th, 2021.
Weeks’ guilty plea brings the number of BitClub scammers who have pled guilty to three. Programmer Silviu Catalin pled guilty in July. Promoter Joe Abel pled guilty in September.

The DOJ’s case against ringleaders Matthew Brent Goettsche and Russ Medlin continues.

Thanks to Oz @ BehindMLM
https://behindmlm.com/companies/bitclub-network/joby-weeks-pleads-guilty-to-bitclub-network-fraud/

[CoinClarity]

Jobadiah “Joby” Weeks has plead guilty to two counts of BitClub Network related fraud.
As per the terms of a plea agreement reached with the DOJ, Joby Weeks has pled guilty to conspiring to offer and sell unregistered securities and tax evasion.
I don’t recall specific figures pertaining to Weeks’ tax evasion being included in his original BitClub Network indictment.

As per the plea agreement;

Weeks agrees that he willfully evaded tax reporting requirements for the taxable periods 2015 to 2018.
The parties agree that the combined tax loss … is greater than $3,500,000 but less than $9,500,000.

One can imagine Weeks’ anti-government beliefs and use of cryptocurrency played a significant role in him dodging taxes.
The two counts of fraud Weeks has pled guilty two carry consecutive statutory prison sentences of up to five years each. A statutory monetary penalty will also be applied.

The plea agreement also requires Weeks to pay restitution to BitClub Network victims.

Pending Weeks’ satisfying the terms of the plea agreement, the DOJ will not pursue any further BitClub Network or tax fraud actions. This includes dropping the wire fraud count in Weeks’ indictment.
Week’s plea agreement was accepted by the court on November 5th.
On November 6th bond was set at $2 million dollars. To secure his release, four properties in the US belonging to Weeks and family members have been offered as surety.

Pending Weeks providing pre-trial services with a travel itinerary and a custodian arranging to travel with him from New Jersey to Colorado (presumably a family member), Weeks will be released to home incarceration with location monitoring.
Sentencing has been scheduled for March 17th, 2021.
Weeks’ guilty plea brings the number of BitClub scammers who have pled guilty to three. Programmer Silviu Catalin pled guilty in July. Promoter Joe Abel pled guilty in September.

The DOJ’s case against ringleaders Matthew Brent Goettsche and Russ Medlin continues.

Thanks to Oz @ BehindMLM
https://behindmlm.com/companies/bitclub-network/joby-weeks-pleads-guilty-to-bitclub-network-fraud/

Thanks for your update on this. I heard about the court case outcome elsewhere and logged back in specifically to see if you had written about it -- very informative summary. Please keep up the great work in exposing scammers!