Follow the Bitcoins taken from me by Homeland Security

[BurtW]

I have a Money Service Business license from FINCEN.

Then you can use localbitcoin.com with no issues with the Feds, as stated above there is the state.  But assuming either:

They don't have a license in your state (Texas and others).
They say you don't need a licence in your state (Colorado and others).
You went ahead and also got the state license (New York, and others).

You are theoretically good to go and can conduct as much business as you want to using localbitcoins, your own web site, storefront, whatever.

Of course, now that you have the proper licensing you need to play by all the rules written for those who have said licenses.

But I suspect you already know all this....

[Mikestang]

Civil asset forfeiture is a hot topic right now, it's total bullshit.  Unfortunately here in California we just had a promising reform bill shot down by misrepresentation from the law enforcement lobbies.  Most of the California forfeit cases deal with cannabis cultivation.

it is the advertising on the internet and the doing "business" with the general public that allows them to come in and seize your property.

The scary thing is, when you get to looking at civil asset forfeiture, they really don't need any reason to take your stuff, you do not need to be accused or convicted of a crime, and you have no recourse to get it back.

[ajareselde]

The scary thing is, when you get to looking at civil asset forfeiture, they really don't need any reason to take your stuff, you do not need to be accused or convicted of a crime, and you have no recourse to get it back.

I would really like to see them take something that only i can unlock, since i don't keep any passwords or similar things written or stored.
They would need my consent in order to take bitcoins away from me, which i doubt i would ever do, even faced with larger losses. Thank god i don't live in USA tho

[MaxSan]

Makes me feel like I got off  "light" compared with you.

Sorry for your loss.

[mallard]

How did they take the Bitcoins?
Did they just tell you to send all of the Bitcoins to a specific address, or did they take your private keys?

[baby222]

I sent them a message with the blockchain.

It's included in this OP_RETURN:

OP_RETURN 53504b6d2e7668cb50a8928442fbf6260098004f32515afd8dd22e1207d857e5ed572fb4a1ed963 9

When decoded in sparkbit it reads

Creative, interesting and fun!

Hehehehe, this was pretty epic, i wish we could tag all the wallets that are part of the police or any government agency.

[charles11]

I have a Money Service Business license from FINCEN.

Then you can use localbitcoin.com with no issues with the Feds, as stated above there is the state.  But assuming either:

You are theoretically good to go and can conduct as much business as you want to using localbitcoins, your own web site, storefront, whatever.

Of course, now that you have the proper licensing you need to play by all the rules written for those who have said licenses.

Exactly..you just need to keep good records and if someone buys $10 in bitcoin from you, you must get their DL#, Social security # and address, etc.  And course most people buying bitcoin on LBC are totally fine with that.

[charles11]

FUcking pigs man.. I hope they all die a slow painful death.

Mainly the law makers and leaders of the countries... god I hope there is a hell and they rot in the depths of it for their crimes against humanity.

Be careful about posting things like that.  On Reason.com, someone posted that a federal judge should "burn in hell" and the Feds subpoenaed Reason.com to get the IP of the person who posted that....no kidding.

[mallard]

FUcking pigs man.. I hope they all die a slow painful death.

Mainly the law makers and leaders of the countries... god I hope there is a hell and they rot in the depths of it for their crimes against humanity.

Be careful about posting things like that.  On Reason.com, someone posted that a federal judge should "burn in hell" and the Feds subpoenaed Reason.com to get the IP of the person who posted that....no kidding.

I thought in America, people were supposed to be able to say what they wanted to.

[BurtW]

I would really like to see them take something that only i can unlock, since i don't keep any passwords or similar things written or stored.
They would need my consent in order to take bitcoins away from me, which i doubt i would ever do, even faced with larger losses. Thank god i don't live in USA tho

How did they take the Bitcoins?
Did they just tell you to send all of the Bitcoins to a specific address, or did they take your private keys?

I know nothing about other countries but here in the US they have this thing called "contempt of court" which is the second most odious part of the law, right behind civil asset forfeiture.

All the judge needs to do is say "give me the password to all of your Bitcoins or you will be in contempt of court".  If you do not then give them your Bitcoins you will be sent to jail.

Note that for the most part it is almost impossible to appeal "contempt of court"

Also, they can keep you in jail until you produce the password they want.  That means forever - there is no time limit.

So your passwords are only as secure as your willingness to go to jail to keep them secret.

[BurtW]

The scary thing is, when you get to looking at civil asset forfeiture, they really don't need any reason to take your stuff, you do not need to be accused or convicted of a crime, and you have no recourse to get it back.

In fact they often just take your property without charging you with anything at all because charging you is more paperwork and it actually can make it even more difficult for you to get your stuff back since there is no criminal case attached to the forfeiture.

[Mikestang]

The scary thing is, when you get to looking at civil asset forfeiture, they really don't need any reason to take your stuff, you do not need to be accused or convicted of a crime, and you have no recourse to get it back.

In fact they often just take your property without charging you with anything at all because charging you is more paperwork and it actually can make it even more difficult for you to get your stuff back since there is no criminal case attached to the forfeiture.

This has been happening for years with medical cannabis dispensaries in California.  The police bust in to a California law abiding business, take all the cannabis, money, computers, video surveillance gear, etc. etc., and then say have a nice day, we may file charges against you.  Charges are never filed and all that stuff now belongs to the police.

What a deal, no wonder they don't want to change it.

[Hellot]

tl;dr:  I was charged with operating a money transmittal business without a licence for my trading activity on localbitcoins.com. (profile)  

Did you received or sent FIAT from or to outside of the USA through bank transaction, cash or any other means ?

All of my localbitcoins.com transactions were cash in person trades at a local coffee shop.

I remove myself from localbitcoins completely, I advertise there but that's the extent of it. The way it is setup now makes it too easy for criminals and undercovers .

The simple act of advertising on localbitcoins means you might be considered to be running a business. 

If you are running a business then it can/will be considered a money transmittal business and you can be arrested, throw in jail, have your property (computers, Bitcoins, cash, gold, silver, etc.) seized, and face up to a five year prison sentence - that is what happened to me.

It is not the act of using localbitcoins to do your trading that they use to seize your property, it is the advertising on the internet and the doing "business" with the general public that allows them to come in and seize your property.

 
Looking at your LBC profile feedback, it looks like you were doing more than just advertising on LBC.  And comments like the one below could stand out to law enforcement and make them take notice.
 
July 9, 2014, 12:36 a.m.
+ BurtW was a Pro, and help this noob out with his first Local Bitcoin transaction. I almost giving up on Local Bitcoins, as I never heard back from one person after a day, and another person couldn't remember if I was buying or selling bitcoins right before I was going to meet them. Then the person cancelled on me and offered no help. But BurtW was a diamond in the ruff and was able to buy $4.5k worth of bitcoins from me, which isn't chump change. He responded fast and I never worried about the deal. I will be using BurtW every month to sell tens of thousands of dollars worth of Bitcoins. If he can handle that, then he can handle any order.
 

[BitUsher]

It would be interesting to see how the fed and courts in the US interpret "Business" if you:

Trade bitcoins for fiat at bitcoin meetups for no profit at spot price.

Is this technically a business? I suppose they could prosecute these individuals for tax fraud when they don't exactly pay the capital gains from bitcoins volatility... but what if you purchase the bitcoins instantly through an exchange and had the buyer pay spot+exchange fee thus no change in value?

What if an exchange created btc coupons that could be sold to redeem bitcoin and those in turn were sold for profit locally? (Like BTChina was doing) . Do the laws qualify coupons as needing a money transmitters license?

Perhaps we need to take a page from all the fortune 500 companies which use a well known loophole to bypass gambling laws. Sell a product(sticker) that enters user in a contest with a chance to win bitcoin (from foreign exchange and with extremely high odds of winning) and no requirement of purchase necessary if users fill out a form to be mailed one opportunity to win btc(limit 1 per address)

[akaman]

Makes me feel like I got off  "light" compared with you.

Mind telling us your story?

[dooglus]

I advertise there but that's the extent of it

Looking at your LBC profile feedback, it looks like you were doing more than just advertising on LBC.

turtlehurricane said he was only advertising.

Your quote from LBC is about BurtW.

They are different people.

[GermanGiant]

tl;dr:  I was charged with operating a money transmittal business without a licence for my trading activity on localbitcoins.com. (profile)  

Did you received or sent FIAT from or to outside of the USA through bank transaction, cash or any other means ?

All of my localbitcoins.com transactions were cash in person trades at a local coffee shop.

Oops. That is highly risky. Anyone from any country using LBC must avoid cash transaction, because it does not leave a trail. And if you do not leave a trail, administration will naturally be suspicious about you. It works like this...

You probably sold 1 BTC against 200 USD and paid tax accordingly. But, if you do it in cash, administration has no other way than simply trusting you that you sold 1 BTC only. You may have sold 10 BTC against cash and reported 1 BTC. Authorities do not like this. Whenver you are changing BTC against FIAT, do it online. Keep a trail and show it if you are in trouble. I never heard anyone to be in trouble using LBC for online transactions only within the country.

[akaman]

Here are the 186 ($42,222.00 as of this posting) Bitcoins taken from me by Homeland Security:

https://blockchain.info/address/1Eu38i1DkRAPAJhSqbseVroJDpMRfJbAx3

I am sure you guys can come up with some creative, interesting, fun ideas to do with this information.

I'm horrified by your story. Outright scary!

Eventually,  I assume Homeland Security will want to cash out, by selling these coins on an exchange or auction them out to an investor (like the Silk Road coins).

Just as the community should be encouraged to not trade with stolen coins, obtained through hacking of exchanges etc, I similarly feel no one should purchase or be involved in the trade of 'tainted' coins such as yours that were stolen from you by the State.

Hopefully, someone will take their time to ensure these coins are tracked so that any future potential buyer can be made aware of where these coins came from.

[Hellot]

I advertise there but that's the extent of it

Looking at your LBC profile feedback, it looks like you were doing more than just advertising on LBC.

turtlehurricane said he was only advertising.

Your quote from LBC is about BurtW.

They are different people.

Good catch, it doesn't change his feedback though.  That cannot have helped him!

[btvGainer]

I can flood the wallet with spam transactions if you want?

Will it help him in any way?