bitmarket.eu / M4v3R - gambled with customer funds and lost them all

[makomk]

Surprised there's not a thread in Scam Accusations for this already. Apparently the owner of bitmarket.eu was gambling with user funds on Bitcoinica and lost them all when it shut down:

Hello all. I'm terrible sorry for not responding to this earlier. A mix of personal issues with searching for a solution prevented me from it.

Unfortunately, I have very bad news. I cannot currently proccess your withdrawals. The situation is very complicated and it's all my fault, that's why I feel terrible about it. I tried to make this up, to keep the site afloat and somehow recover the funds, but it's not possible anymore. Right now there are 1786 BTC pending withdrawal, which I can't honor...

Earlier this year, I had this "genius" idea which led me to making a fatal mistake. I thought I could provide a hedge fund service for Bitmarket users. There were other sites providing this service so I guesses that it could be successful. I had experience in trading before, all I needed is a platform. And there was one - Bitcoinica. I was so convinced with this idea (and sooo wrong in hindsight) that for a while I kept majority of "offline" Bitmarket funds there. What I didn't expect was that one day it could just dissapear - taking all the money with it. What's worse, the funds were shorted when it happened (converted to USD and sold) - and after Bitcoinica dissapeared BTC price rose by about 250% until now. So while there is still chance to recover the funds (there is an appointed liquidator assigned to this case and I've already sent in claims) it will be not enough to cover all people's funds. For the record - there are 20161 19980 BTC missing (edit: I subtracted my funds that also were deposited on Bitmarket), and Bitcoinica claims total for around 50K USD (the exact amount is uncertain because the liquidators haven't yet stated at what rate they will liquidate positions).

Sadly, I alone, I'm out of options. I don't have own money to pay for this loss (Bitmarket never made any real profit and I make up for a living by part-time web/mobile programming).

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[davout]

for a while I kept majority of "offline" Bitmarket funds there

badum tsshh

[elux]

 

I had many sleepless nights thinking about how I can make this tight. I just need some help with this.

 

[fcmatt]

par for the course for most bitcoin websites. the percentage of quasi successful bitcoin sites going to the dumpster is quite high.
through idiots, greed, stupidity, theft, etc.. the rate of fail is so high in this small community. makes you wonder what is next.

[MPOE-PR]

for a while I kept majority of "offline" Bitmarket funds there

badum tsshh

This is right in there with the "small majority".

makes you wonder what is next.

Snark never fails!

[greyhawk]

I had many sleepless nights thinking about how I can make this tight. I just need some help with this.

 

If only. You know how this is going to end instead. With people going "Yeah, well at least he's paying back one BTC per month divided through all accounts" 5 years later.

[HorseRider]

I think it should tagged scammer. If he is paying back the money, we can withdraw the tag after he actually paid it. Gambling with users' money, it is totally unacceptable.