Find Trendon Shavers in person thread... [BTCST, BTS&T, pirateat40]

[SebastianJu]

Youre sure? Without government he would have bought his private army and would be invincible. Done...

The governtment is, or at least should be, the power of the people. And the people dont want such things happen. Thats the way. And yes, i know the governments are perverted forms of what it should be. But still better then without.

And then they lived happily ever after...

Governments are amoung the worst kind of evils that exist. And people actually love how they abuse them.

Like i said, i know how abused governments are nowadays. But im pretty sure that i dont want to go back to the times of "the right of the strongest".

There has been progress since then both socially and technologically. Something much more efficient will come to be once we pass this plateau caused by the existence of nations states and nationalists.

We already have right of the strongest. It's just a twisted, inefficient non-transparent version of it.

Yes, progress. But only the state is the gathering point for the will of the people. How will you replace this? And if you think that people will behave fine only because government is away then please check out what happens when police/government doesnt go in certain areas anymore because they risk their life in there. Other laws apply there and you wont live under then. Even communities of moral people tend to break at some point because one or another thinks he has rights to take for the loss of others. Its simply not the case that all people are so high developed that they can function without a "brain" for the whole organism.

you have little imagination if you cannot envision a world without a government babysitting it. each function it serves can be replaced with free market options. cops would be paid according to how well they protect people, road workers how well they maintain the roads etc etc. also instead of the lengthy judicial system i would suppose another system: a system whereby whomever is harmed or taken advantage of is made whole by the forced labor of the person who committed the crime.

Sure, i can imagine this. Cops that serve the rich. Logical, they are pay them. Road Workers will be paid from who? Who will give the money? And why does anybody give and not think that others will pay it and i can save it?
And your "right system". Who will pay it? Who decide whats right and whats not? Again the rich will rule.
You whole world would be an even more perverse company ruled country like it is now. Even now those lobbyists enforce laws to forbid labelling gmo-free, enforce fracking and other things that clearly harm the environment and peoples land. Even now the money is stronger. And you really await that a world where the people not even have the government anymore, that has the real power and could put the peoples will into a law, would be better? I really dont see how you can believe that.

Youre sure? Without government he would have bought his private army and would be invincible. Done...

The governtment is, or at least should be, the power of the people. And the people dont want such things happen. Thats the way. And yes, i know the governments are perverted forms of what it should be. But still better then without.

And then they lived happily ever after...

Governments are amoung the worst kind of evils that exist. And people actually love how they abuse them.

Like i said, i know how abused governments are nowadays. But im pretty sure that i dont want to go back to the times of "the right of the strongest".

There has been progress since then both socially and technologically. Something much more efficient will come to be once we pass this plateau caused by the existence of nations states and nationalists.

We already have right of the strongest. It's just a twisted, inefficient non-transparent version of it.

Yes, progress. But only the state is the gathering point for the will of the people. How will you replace this? And if you think that people will behave fine only because government is away then please check out what happens when police/government doesnt go in certain areas anymore because they risk their life in there. Other laws apply there and you wont live under then. Even communities of moral people tend to break at some point because one or another thinks he has rights to take for the loss of others. Its simply not the case that all people are so high developed that they can function without a "brain" for the whole organism.

It will be distributed. The huge flaw is the whole centralization in the first place. Decentralized systems which evolve and are not planned in advance by humans are superior.

Also I wouldn't consider the government to be the gathering point for the will of the people. I consider it the smoke and mirrors of those with power who would lose that (partly) when the market was more free.

All the other questions are answered by entrepeneurs. If there is a need something will develop.

Centralization isnt bad. Its bad when its a hierarchical strukture where the top rules over the bottom. The right way would be a base that rules the top and the top represents the whole influx of will from the bottom. Thats democracy.

And yes, i think much power in governments is done by lobbyists and money. But when turning it into a real democracy this could be changed.

Again... i dont see how one can think that taking away government will lead to a better world. Even now its pretty simple for lobbyists and money to rule a country because of sick bastards in government that dont serve their country but their own good. And that is easy in a status of pseudo-democracy, where the people chose their representants. That means the will of the people is worth at least a bit. Take this away all that will rule is the money.

[wachtwoord]

Your first sentence is the mistake. Centralization always leads to less efficient systems everywhere (not just socially but also in engineering and in mathematics).

[Listener]

Sebastian Ju brought up some legit points here though I also get to some extent the position of wachtwoord.

Nevertheless, I seriously doubt that even if we had no government and just the law of the stronger, anyone here would have beaten that pirate´s a**! We are way too lazy nowadays. It is not like we did not have any possibility to face a Trendon Shavers on the street and confront him. Nothing like that happened...

[Buffer Overflow]

It is not like we did not have any possibility to face a Trendon Shavers on the street and confront him. Nothing like that happened...

How do you know nothing like that happened then? Are you pirate or a close friend?

[Kluge]

Is he actually in custody?

Of course not. People see an official statement from a government saying about all of jack-shit and think Pirate's behind bars for life.

Waddyagonnado?

SEC: We officially agree with tens of official reports claiming Pirate defrauded investors. He probably lived in Texas. Don't invest in ponzi schemes.
Forum: BREAKING - Pirate captured, facing life in prison. Do you guys think it was good that the USG has imprisoned Pirate?

[Listener]

It is not like we did not have any possibility to face a Trendon Shavers on the street and confront him. Nothing like that happened...

How do you know nothing like that happened then? Are you pirate or a close friend?

No, I am not a friend or whatever to Trendon, rather the opposite. I made my "assumptions" by reading this thread here.

And yes, it does not say he is facing jail time or whatever, but Kluge, you forgot an important part  :

The SEC is seeking a court order to freeze the assets of Shavers and BTCST in addition to other relief, including permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, and financial penalties.

[Kluge]

And yes, it does not say he is facing jail time or whatever, but Kluge, you forgot an important part  :

The SEC is seeking a court order to freeze the assets of Shavers and BTCST in addition to other relief, including permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, and financial penalties.

I'm seeking a blowjob and a pizza. So fucking what? 

SEC hasn't given any indication they even know where Pirate is. (outside of him residing in TX at some point)

[Listener]

And yes, it does not say he is facing jail time or whatever, but Kluge, you forgot an important part  :

The SEC is seeking a court order to freeze the assets of Shavers and BTCST in addition to other relief, including permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, and financial penalties.

I'm seeking a blowjob and a pizza. So fucking what?  

SEC hasn't given any indication they even know where Pirate is. (outside of him residing in TX at some point)

Do they normally provide you with the address? No.

Answers your post.

[Kluge]

And yes, it does not say he is facing jail time or whatever, but Kluge, you forgot an important part  :

The SEC is seeking a court order to freeze the assets of Shavers and BTCST in addition to other relief, including permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, and financial penalties.

I'm seeking a blowjob and a pizza. So fucking what? 

SEC hasn't given any indication they even know where Pirate is. (outside of him residing in TX at some point)

Do they normally provide you with the address? No.

Answers your post.

Oh, please. That address is posted all over (they didn't even give the full address). Name, too. There's no indictment. As of now, this is a non-story. It's just the SEC giving an official response along the lines of what numerous official reports against Pirate have claimed.

Maybe it'll change - but as of now, there's no reason to have a higher rate of suspicion that anything significant'll happen over what was suspected a year ago.

Pirate met physically in-person with many different people who've come forward. They came forward a year ago. The SEC's failure to actually DO anything other than make an online blog post after a whole freakin' year is more reason than ever to suspect there will be no action by the SEC to actually prosecute Pirate. For all we know, he's in Venezuela huffing gasoline and telling locals he's the son of God.

ETA: Compare this to the Michael Brown case. His house was raided, with his wife and he handcuffed to their bed while the secret service was rather rudely kicking down his doors, seizing any storage hardware, and otherwise ruining his life. He's been indicted and in court for batshit-insane charges of blackmailing Mitt Romney for Bitcoins. Pirate, OTOH, is a known scammer of tens of millions, and so far has an SEC complaint filed against "his entity."

ETA2: I'll also say, as someone who filed a formal complaint against Pirate, that the SEC never even bothered to reply back to me.

ETA3: Maybe I'm being too harsh. I'll henceforth reserve judgment about the SEC's actions until more information comes up. I'm very bitter about a friend being raided and indicted by the USG for something completely fucking ridiculous while a blatant criminal is not even officially complained about until a year after it was proven a scam, while many scammers who've cheated me out of tens of thousands USD remain at-large, and the SEC didn't even fucking bother to contact me about Pirate..... ..... ........ Holding my tongue, now.

[riX]

Hmm did someone post this already?
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2013/comp-pr2013-132.pdf

[JWU42]

Hmm did someone post this already?
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2013/comp-pr2013-132.pdf

Not that I had seen - thanks!

[MPOE-PR]

Your first sentence is the mistake. Centralization always leads to less efficient systems everywhere (not just socially but also in engineering and in mathematics).

Which is why your suparefficient cooking stove is distributed all over your habitat in little cubic millimeter bits. Much more efficient than a cubic meter central stove in a central location called the kitchen. Also that's why "central heating" is not heard of but "distributed heating" is a thing.

Well done, a Bitcoin expert is you. Try and get a central nervous system sometime. I hear they have real cheap ones in Mathematics. Or Engineering.

[CoinEntropy]

And yes, it does not say he is facing jail time or whatever, but Kluge, you forgot an important part  :

The SEC is seeking a court order to freeze the assets of Shavers and BTCST in addition to other relief, including permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, and financial penalties.

I'm seeking a blowjob and a pizza. So fucking what? 

SEC hasn't given any indication they even know where Pirate is. (outside of him residing in TX at some point)

Do they normally provide you with the address? No.

Answers your post.

Oh, please. That address is posted all over (they didn't even give the full address). Name, too. There's no indictment. As of now, this is a non-story. It's just the SEC giving an official response along the lines of what numerous official reports against Pirate have claimed.

Maybe it'll change - but as of now, there's no reason to have a higher rate of suspicion that anything significant'll happen over what was suspected a year ago.

Pirate met physically in-person with many different people who've come forward. They came forward a year ago. The SEC's failure to actually DO anything other than make an online blog post after a whole freakin' year is more reason than ever to suspect there will be no action by the SEC to actually prosecute Pirate. For all we know, he's in Venezuela huffing gasoline and telling locals he's the son of God.

ETA: Compare this to the Michael Brown case. His house was raided, with his wife and he handcuffed to their bed while the secret service was rather rudely kicking down his doors, seizing any storage hardware, and otherwise ruining his life. He's been indicted and in court for batshit-insane charges of blackmailing Mitt Romney for Bitcoins. Pirate, OTOH, is a known scammer of tens of millions, and so far has an SEC complaint filed against "his entity."

ETA2: I'll also say, as someone who filed a formal complaint against Pirate, that the SEC never even bothered to reply back to me.

ETA3: Maybe I'm being too harsh. I'll henceforth reserve judgment about the SEC's actions until more information comes up. I'm very bitter about a friend being raided and indicted by the USG for something completely fucking ridiculous while a blatant criminal is not even officially complained about until a year after it was proven a scam, while many scammers who've cheated me out of tens of thousands USD remain at-large, and the SEC didn't even fucking bother to contact me about Pirate..... ..... ........ Holding my tongue, now.

Is pirate's physical involvement with others the cause of his demise? How was he doxed so easily?

[Kluge]

Is pirate's physical involvement with others the cause of his demise? How was he doxed so easily?

We don't know if there's any "demise." IIRC, "Trendon's" name and address were used around the Internet for domain registration, which had a few connections to other people and physical addresses. IIRC (again -- remember this "happened" a year ago, and people were trying to fully dox him while he was operating), he gave a name for his designer who was previously tied to domain registrations, giving credibility to the possibility that the Trendon Shavers people discovered was Pirate. He did physically meet up with major lenders at one point, and while he did give quite a few specifics about his alleged operation then to those people, he was still very evasive. We'd have a totally different situation here if someone at the physical meetup was ballsy enough to demand Pirate present ID, which Pirate may not have faked. (OTOH, if he did have a fake one, this'd be even more of a clusterfuck)

There are definitely people other than Pirate involved with GPUMax and his lending program. At one point, he told me "I have a group of coders that had it built, I have spent a lot of time on gpumax and didnt have the time to build it so I hired it out." It's concerning none of them have publicly come out, and the SEC's made no indication of even knowing them -- it's possible they never existed. If they didn't exist, I think it highly probable that "Trendon Shavers" is not Pirate.

[CoinEntropy]

Is pirate's physical involvement with others the cause of his demise? How was he doxed so easily?

We don't know if there's any "demise." IIRC, "Trendon's" name and address were used around the Internet for domain registration, which had a few connections to other people and physical addresses. IIRC (again -- remember this "happened" a year ago, and people were trying to fully dox him while he was operating), he gave a name for his designer who was previously tied to domain registrations, giving credibility to the possibility that the Trendon Shavers people discovered was Pirate. He did physically meet up with major lenders at one point, and while he did give quite a few specifics about his alleged operation then to those people, he was still very evasive. We'd have a totally different situation here if someone at the physical meetup was ballsy enough to demand Pirate present ID, which Pirate may not have faked. (OTOH, if he did have a fake one, this'd be even more of a clusterfuck)

There are definitely people other than Pirate involved with GPUMax and his lending program. At one point, he told me "I have a group of coders that had it built, I have spent a lot of time on gpumax and didnt have the time to build it so I hired it out." It's concerning none of them have publicly come out, and the SEC's made no indication of even knowing them -- it's possible they never existed. If they didn't exist, I think it highly probable that "Trendon Shavers" is not Pirate.

So this alleged ponzi was devised on his own (or the group's own) website? It wasn't done on this forum, or on an established security exchange, it was its own site dedicated to one security?

[CoinEntropy]

Is he actually in custody?

Of course not. People see an official statement from a government saying about all of jack-shit and think Pirate's behind bars for life.

Waddyagonnado?

SEC: We officially agree with tens of official reports claiming Pirate defrauded investors. He probably lived in Texas. Don't invest in ponzi schemes.
Forum: BREAKING - Pirate captured, facing life in prison. Do you guys think it was good that the USG has imprisoned Pirate?

This is somewhat clarifying. The rumors made it seem the way you put sarcastically.

Why don't you think this will turn into an actual case? What do you mean by "of course not," which implies that this is extremely unlikely?

[Kluge]

So this alleged ponzi was devised on his own (or the group's own) website? It wasn't done on this forum, or on an established security exchange, it was its own site dedicated to one security?

It started on the forum, though it probably originally started on an IRC channel, where Pirate established a reputation as a currency exchanger. Others in IRC who worked with Pirate gave him a lot of benefit-of-the-doubt because of his large volume of activities there without any sign of being a scammer.

He was basically just looking for loans on the forum when he posted. He'd claim to have a limited amount of availability, like someone responsible, but I don't think he ever actually ran into those "limits" with anyone.

@ "Why don't you think this will turn into an actual case?" - Because the SEC hasn't really given me any confidence with their post and complaint. They haven't verified his location, and it'd be totally unreasonable for Pirate to stay in the same place given he knew he'd been formally reported for tens of millions in fraud a year ago. When a USG LEO bureaucracy focuses on snagging someone, they generally don't give the guy advance warning. They come in unannounced, serve you an indictment, and detain. There's no indication of that happening. Ofc, this is a civil case, not a criminal case (for whatever reason...). Different play-set.

Right now, there's no information suggesting Pirate's in custody, over a year after he defrauded people out of tens of millions worth of USD. That doesn't inspire any confidence at all in the SEC's prosecution.

[Kluge]

When I'm thinking of the SEC's response, I'm comparing it to the Michael Brown prosecution.

Here's an article I wrote and publicly posted about Brown...

"Two Secret Service Raids Later, Previous Holder of Over $4m in BTC in Good Spirits

One man's world has been inarguably changed, for the better, and the worse, by Bitcoin. Through a shrewd and, what some have claimed dubious, business deal, Nashville, TN resident Michael Brown (known online as “Knightmb”) acquired 371,000 Bitcoins (then worth roughly $20,000 in a market which couldn't bear downward pressure) for $5,000. As of this writing, the 371,000 Bitcoins he purchased in 2011 are currently worth approximately $4m. Now, however, he may not only be Satoshi-less, but may also (again) be at risk of a stay in federal prison.

Who Is Michael Brown?
Brown lives in TN with his wife and child, working in just about everything technical. He provides wireless Internet service, designs hardware for other his company and other Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) to use, as well as software. Brown also works as network, email, and website administer for multiple SMBs. Brown is quite familiar with Bitcoin and within the earlier online community. Around 2010, Brown even wrote and published an abstract on “Timekoin,” a proposed Bitcoin alternative he still uses.

Brown's Bitcoins
Around the time of Bitcoin's birth, Brown collected money (the project had roughly $12,000 in total funding) and bought hashing power to accumulate Bitcoins. By the time the money had run out, the project owned approximately 371,000 Bitcoins. However, even while the price of Bitcoins were roughly $.06 each, there was only very weak market demand. According to Brown, “It is easy in hindsight to think of how foolish anyone would be to sell that large amount of bitcoins for such a small amount, but back then there were articles written all over the Internet about bitcoin being a pyramid scam or a fools investment. The people (investors) that originally got into it, thought they had made a huge investment mistake and just wanted to get out.” And get out they did, allowing Brown to buy the project and its 371,000 Bitcoins for “only” $5,000.

However, while this collection of Bitcoin would be worth roughly $4,000,000 USD as of this writing, Brown states he did give away most of his holdings, including a large chunk to Wikileaks when they began accepting BTC donations, with Brown adding the quip “At the time though, I might as well have been sending power points from pokemon cards as far as what actual value they would get from it.“ Brown also gave much of his holdings away to those finding his contact information, with the remainder being sold once the Bitcoin market skyrocketed, allowing him to “make back my initial investment plus a lot of interest.“

There have been claims of foul play by Brown's previous partners, who were primarily members of electric bicycle forum Endless-Sphere. Bitcoin Magazine reached out to Justin, the current owner of the forum (Brown previously owned the forum while the Bitcoin accumulation project was ongoing). However, as of this writing, no evidence was brought up indicating Brown had done anything morally questionable. While there was “a three day mutiny” against Brown while he owned the forum, it appears this was solely related to the sale of the forum to another person (not Justin) who wanted the forum to be monetized.


Tax Document Theft
In mid-2012, Mitt and Ann Romney's tax documents were stolen from their accounting firm, PWC. Later, PWC received a flash drive and ransom letter demanding $1m worth of Bitcoins to keep the documents private. These documents, as of today, were never released, though it would appear the Romneys never paid the ransom. BitInstant, for their part in grabbing the media's attention in this ordeal, offered the Romney campaign a free USD-to-BTC conversion should they be interested.

The flash drive in the envelope sent to PWC did not just contain copies of the documents the ransomer was threatening to release, but also included two pictures of cats around furniture. The cat pictures were heavily scrutinized by the US Secret Service and considered to be the smoking gun of the case, which Brown says “has kind of turned into a running joke now among friends and family.” The Secret Service then decided, likely with evidence not yet presented to the public, to conduct a raid against Michael Brown and his family's home (again).

Likely taken into consideration by the United States SS was Brown's previous acquaintance with SS agents during their last raid of his house, which occurred in 2009. At the time, Brown worked for an insurance company to help them neatly organize customers' personal information into a spreadsheet. Brown alleges that part of the information he was to organize were social security numbers, which he wasn't sure if was legal. Brown contacted the insurance company but wasn't given proper attention until he threatened to tell national media. Brown says, “They explained that no one should have access to any customer's social security number, but I was trying to show them it was wrong assumption. Soon afterward, instead of fixing the issue, they called the federal government and told them I had stolen their customer data which contained tens or hundreds of thousands of social security numbers.“ It was at this point Brown first experiences the joy of a federal raid, where only his workstation was seized (he would not be so lucky in the future).  According to Brown, “After many months and many visits to the Secret Service office in Nashville, the case was finally closed for being a waste of time and resources for the Secret Service and my workstation was returned (damaged). No charges were ever filed and the case dropped.“

The 2012 Raid
It was September 14th, 2012 when Brown and his wife would again awake to bright flashlights being shone in their faces by Secret Service agents. This time, agents demanded answers about the pictures of cats written to the USB drive included with the ransom letter sent to the Romneys' tax firm.

Unfortunately for the Secret Service, they soon found neither the cats nor the furniture pictured. This didn't prevent them from further interrogating Brown and his family, however. His daughter would later be able to identify the cats as being owned by one of Brown's former clients, Janine Bolin, whose computer he backed up for her while helping repair her system. The Secret Service left Brown's house after crawling around his attic and confiscating any electronics they could find. They then paid a visit to Bolin's house, where they'd again confiscate all electronic equipment in case it might have evidence.

Brown states legal fees may be as high as $6,000, with other damages including what was done to his house (including the stereotypical broken doors), and says the situation the US Secret Service has created is similar to if “your local plumber has his entire truck taken, along with all the tools he uses for the trade.” Brown appears in good spirits, however, saying “if I ever do get any/all of my equipment back, I'm going to have a lot of extra of the same thing at least.” Brown ends responding to my questions with “Overall, the Federal government is made up of regular people like myself. The Federal government makes mistakes and bad things happen because of it. The most our family can do is pick up our life and move on. That is why we were reaching out for help. There have been many times when I've donated money or resources to help those in need, I guess it is time I ask the same in return of my fellow man.”

Brown has created a site for donations at www.mbdonationfund.com."


Now - one day after I posted that article (June 26th), I was alerted to MB being formally indicted on the same day of me posting that article (pure coincidence -- I'm just pointing out how relatively fast the response was). There appears to have never been a search warrant on Pirate -- I seriously doubt the SEC knows where he is. There no reasonable motive on the MB case, and while "he" went after someone high on the totem pole, the rapid response in that case (he's already appeared in a court) versus the molasses-slow response here is very disappointing.

(Oh -- sorry for breaking my "I'll shut up, now" promise)

[CoinEntropy]

When I'm thinking of the SEC's response, I'm comparing it to the Michael Brown prosecution.

Here's an article I wrote and publicly posted about Brown...

"Two Secret Service Raids Later, Previous Holder of Over $4m in BTC in Good Spirits

One man's world has been inarguably changed, for the better, and the worse, by Bitcoin. Through a shrewd and, what some have claimed dubious, business deal, Nashville, TN resident Michael Brown (known online as “Knightmb”) acquired 371,000 Bitcoins (then worth roughly $20,000 in a market which couldn't bear downward pressure) for $5,000. As of this writing, the 371,000 Bitcoins he purchased in 2011 are currently worth approximately $4m. Now, however, he may not only be Satoshi-less, but may also (again) be at risk of a stay in federal prison.

Who Is Michael Brown?
Brown lives in TN with his wife and child, working in just about everything technical. He provides wireless Internet service, designs hardware for other his company and other Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) to use, as well as software. Brown also works as network, email, and website administer for multiple SMBs. Brown is quite familiar with Bitcoin and within the earlier online community. Around 2010, Brown even wrote and published an abstract on “Timekoin,” a proposed Bitcoin alternative he still uses.

Brown's Bitcoins
Around the time of Bitcoin's birth, Brown collected money (the project had roughly $12,000 in total funding) and bought hashing power to accumulate Bitcoins. By the time the money had run out, the project owned approximately 371,000 Bitcoins. However, even while the price of Bitcoins were roughly $.06 each, there was only very weak market demand. According to Brown, “It is easy in hindsight to think of how foolish anyone would be to sell that large amount of bitcoins for such a small amount, but back then there were articles written all over the Internet about bitcoin being a pyramid scam or a fools investment. The people (investors) that originally got into it, thought they had made a huge investment mistake and just wanted to get out.” And get out they did, allowing Brown to buy the project and its 371,000 Bitcoins for “only” $5,000.

However, while this collection of Bitcoin would be worth roughly $4,000,000 USD as of this writing, Brown states he did give away most of his holdings, including a large chunk to Wikileaks when they began accepting BTC donations, with Brown adding the quip “At the time though, I might as well have been sending power points from pokemon cards as far as what actual value they would get from it.“ Brown also gave much of his holdings away to those finding his contact information, with the remainder being sold once the Bitcoin market skyrocketed, allowing him to “make back my initial investment plus a lot of interest.“

There have been claims of foul play by Brown's previous partners, who were primarily members of electric bicycle forum Endless-Sphere. Bitcoin Magazine reached out to Justin, the current owner of the forum (Brown previously owned the forum while the Bitcoin accumulation project was ongoing). However, as of this writing, no evidence was brought up indicating Brown had done anything morally questionable. While there was “a three day mutiny” against Brown while he owned the forum, it appears this was solely related to the sale of the forum to another person (not Justin) who wanted the forum to be monetized.


Tax Document Theft
In mid-2012, Mitt and Ann Romney's tax documents were stolen from their accounting firm, PWC. Later, PWC received a flash drive and ransom letter demanding $1m worth of Bitcoins to keep the documents private. These documents, as of today, were never released, though it would appear the Romneys never paid the ransom. BitInstant, for their part in grabbing the media's attention in this ordeal, offered the Romney campaign a free USD-to-BTC conversion should they be interested.

The flash drive in the envelope sent to PWC did not just contain copies of the documents the ransomer was threatening to release, but also included two pictures of cats around furniture. The cat pictures were heavily scrutinized by the US Secret Service and considered to be the smoking gun of the case, which Brown says “has kind of turned into a running joke now among friends and family.” The Secret Service then decided, likely with evidence not yet presented to the public, to conduct a raid against Michael Brown and his family's home (again).

Likely taken into consideration by the United States SS was Brown's previous acquaintance with SS agents during their last raid of his house, which occurred in 2009. At the time, Brown worked for an insurance company to help them neatly organize customers' personal information into a spreadsheet. Brown alleges that part of the information he was to organize were social security numbers, which he wasn't sure if was legal. Brown contacted the insurance company but wasn't given proper attention until he threatened to tell national media. Brown says, “They explained that no one should have access to any customer's social security number, but I was trying to show them it was wrong assumption. Soon afterward, instead of fixing the issue, they called the federal government and told them I had stolen their customer data which contained tens or hundreds of thousands of social security numbers.“ It was at this point Brown first experiences the joy of a federal raid, where only his workstation was seized (he would not be so lucky in the future).  According to Brown, “After many months and many visits to the Secret Service office in Nashville, the case was finally closed for being a waste of time and resources for the Secret Service and my workstation was returned (damaged). No charges were ever filed and the case dropped.“

The 2012 Raid
It was September 14th, 2012 when Brown and his wife would again awake to bright flashlights being shone in their faces by Secret Service agents. This time, agents demanded answers about the pictures of cats written to the USB drive included with the ransom letter sent to the Romneys' tax firm.

Unfortunately for the Secret Service, they soon found neither the cats nor the furniture pictured. This didn't prevent them from further interrogating Brown and his family, however. His daughter would later be able to identify the cats as being owned by one of Brown's former clients, Janine Bolin, whose computer he backed up for her while helping repair her system. The Secret Service left Brown's house after crawling around his attic and confiscating any electronics they could find. They then paid a visit to Bolin's house, where they'd again confiscate all electronic equipment in case it might have evidence.

Brown states legal fees may be as high as $6,000, with other damages including what was done to his house (including the stereotypical broken doors), and says the situation the US Secret Service has created is similar to if “your local plumber has his entire truck taken, along with all the tools he uses for the trade.” Brown appears in good spirits, however, saying “if I ever do get any/all of my equipment back, I'm going to have a lot of extra of the same thing at least.” Brown ends responding to my questions with “Overall, the Federal government is made up of regular people like myself. The Federal government makes mistakes and bad things happen because of it. The most our family can do is pick up our life and move on. That is why we were reaching out for help. There have been many times when I've donated money or resources to help those in need, I guess it is time I ask the same in return of my fellow man.”

Brown has created a site for donations at www.mbdonationfund.com."


Now - one day after I posted that article (June 26th), I was alerted to MB being formally indicted on the same day of me posting that article (pure coincidence -- I'm just pointing out how relatively fast the response was). There appears to have never been a search warrant on Pirate -- I seriously doubt the SEC knows where he is. There no reasonable motive on the MB case, and while "he" went after someone high on the totem pole, the rapid response in that case (he's already appeared in a court) versus the molasses-slow response here is very disappointing.

(Oh -- sorry for breaking my "I'll shut up, now" promise)

Yes, I agree. The charges over bitcoin theft seemed too good to be true, it would require much more substantial evidence that e-testomonies from a pseudo-anonymous crypto. I would assume that if they wanted to charge him criminally they can get the IRS involved as the money allegedly appeared out of nowhere. You're right, I believe, in this serving as a public service announcement than pressing criminal charges.

[Kluge]

You know, though - I only just started really delving into the SEC evidence on the docket. It appears Moustakis did actually get a hold of Pirate/Shavers on the phone

25 on page 6

http://ia800904.us.archive.org/35/items/gov.uscourts.txed.146063/gov.uscourts.txed.146063.4.1.pdf


Full address (this is the same address as was long-ago [mid-late 2012] alleged by forum sleuths) on http://ia600904.us.archive.org/35/items/gov.uscourts.txed.146063/gov.uscourts.txed.146063.9.0.pdf

ETA: Very possible that apartment is vacant -- he didn't own it. http://www.apartmentguide.com/apartments/Texas/McKinney/Regency-At-Stonebridge/27487/ ETA2: Summons doesn't list it, but it's APT 1507 they want... Sent them an email asking about availability for giggles.

The bank they found connected to him has almost nothing in it (as of the time of the most recent statement the bank released)
http://ia600904.us.archive.org/35/items/gov.uscourts.txed.146063/gov.uscourts.txed.146063.5.1.pdf

So.... the most interesting thing out of all that is that Moustakis apparently had a phone conversation with Pirate, but after going through everything the SEC & court submitted so far (h/t D&T for docket -- available @ http://ia800904.us.archive.org/35/items/gov.uscourts.txed.146063/gov.uscourts.txed.146063.docket.html ), either Pirate really did stick around at the same apartment (which'd be dumb as shit), or they don't appear to know where he is.


ETA3: I wonder if the transaction log @ http://ia600904.us.archive.org/35/items/gov.uscourts.txed.146063/gov.uscourts.txed.146063.4.8.pdf indicates they DID already seize stuff -- I can't find where it's indicated to've come from.

(ETA4: spreadsheet apparently WAS Pirate's, not payb.tc's)