A 7-Yr Prison Term for Bitcoin Use, Says Russian Finance Ministry

[Wapinter]

A new amendment to the Criminal Code by the Ministry of Finance in Russia sees the regulator – for the use of bitcoin – propose up to 7 years in prison for management and executives of banks and financial services firms. For the everyday citizen adopting bitcoin, the proposed term for imprisonment is 4 years.

SOURCE: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/a-7-yr-prison-term-for-bitcoin-use-says-russian-finance-ministry/

If it is true,most russian will sell their bitcoins in coming days.this can lead to bitcoin price fall also if Russian Government succeeded in implementing this law,other governments may follow the suit

[BadGhost]

A new amendment to the Criminal Code by the Ministry of Finance in Russia sees the regulator – for the use of bitcoin – propose up to 7 years in prison for management and executives of banks and financial services firms. For the everyday citizen adopting bitcoin, the proposed term for imprisonment is 4 years.

SOURCE: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/a-7-yr-prison-term-for-bitcoin-use-says-russian-finance-ministry/

If it is true,most russian will sell their bitcoins in coming days.this can lead to bitcoin price fall also if Russian Government succeeded in implementing this law,other governments may follow the suit

You can expect this from very left wing oriented countries. Such as Russia, Vietnam and very very maybe China. I wonder whether some Russian fellow coould translate the original propose to english so we could see how bad it is.

[ahpku]

wait last time i've checked russis were heading to accept bitcoin and regulate it? so this must be only a vaporware proposal nothing to worry about

it will never be accepted

You must use a different interweb from the rest of us.

...

[franky1]

if your russian and in fear. dont worry.

just register as money transmitter business..

stop getting scared and spreading fud from a media outlet who quotes a media outlet who quotes "someone".
read the source material.

its only illegal if your using it for guns, drugs porn etc. (no matter what currency it is)

its only illegal to create and exchange funds if your not a money transmitter.(no matter what currency it is)
the new rules are just expanding on the money transmitter laws to include bitcoin..

even exchanging 'payment cards' (pre-paid debit cards) is illegal without a money transmitter registration. so its not saying bitcoin is bad, its not saying visa debitcards are bad. its not even saying running a westernunion style business is bad.. but if you are not registered. then expect a fine if your an individual and expect a fine, ifyou a large corporation then expect big fine or jail time.

so register as a money transmitter.

and relax you wont be fined just for using bitcoin to buy a coffee

[ahpku]

...
so register as a money transmitter.

and relax you wont be fined just for using bitcoin to buy a coffee

>so register as a money transmitter.
You're not OK, are you?

>you wont be fined just for using bitcoin to buy a coffee
But you will for being a business accepting Bitcoin, e.g. selling coffee.
Even if you do find a coffee shop stupid enough to risk fines & jail by accepting BTC, buying coffee with Bitcoin is a thing of the past, welcome to paying tx fees.

P.S. Oh, now I remember you

^^
Source material (below) is in 100% agreement with clickbait.
@naidray: Ignore franky, he knows nothing, just likes to post.

waffle from clickbait sites

so you want to use clickbait as your evidence..
again.. dont give coindesk links or forklog links.. and give the Lenta.ru or even a government news link which meant to be the source of a guy that just arrived in his job 1 month ago, who has not even made a draft himself, or any amendments (as they wont be done before february 20th)

so show me the quote on Lenta.ru which all the clickbait crypto sites have copy and pasted but not directly linked

please show the source, not the mis-interpretted and twisted comment out of context on the clickbait sites.. the actual source please

http://forklog.net/putins-internet-counselor-accepting-bitcoin-is-a-crime/
http://themerkle.com/news/putins-adviser/
Please tell me why you feel that not mainstream press, but BITCOIN PRESS is spreading such horrible disinformation, and YOU, Google Translate wizard, are *the only fricking one* who should be trusted?
Can you contact these lying statist fiatmongers and tell them to staph?
Update: found the the special sauce

...
Ahahahaha! Here you go, Friend

He does, he does say the very words, right here


http://lenta.ru/video/2016/02/05/klimenko/

See the word биткoины? That's Bitcoins, in Cyrillics.





Please ignore the ignorant goof, he trolled me into finding this bullshit, don't let him waste your time

[franky1]

...
so register as a money transmitter.

and relax you wont be fined just for using bitcoin to buy a coffee

>so register as a money transmitter.
You're not OK, are you?

>you wont be fined just for using bitcoin to buy a coffee
But you will for being a business accepting Bitcoin, e.g. selling coffee.
Even if you do find a coffee shop stupid enough to risk fines & jail by accepting BTC, buying coffee with Bitcoin is a thing of the past, welcome to paying tx fees.

have you even read the actual draft? its been a month.. or are you still stuck just reading the date??

by the way selling coffee is not the same as being western union.
selling coffee is not the same as the blackmarket sell of prepaid debit cards holding dollars

selling coffee is not the same as being a 'bureau de change' (currency exchange)

please i beg of you stop reading the news and read the actual source documents. i thought after a month you would have tried to, even as an intention to find some valuable sentance in the real document that debunks mine. but instead all you can quote is a media, quoting a media, quoting a media. where even the video you tried to use as your source seen the guy actually talk about bitcoin positively.

and all you could do is point to the caption saying look here is the word bitcoin.. and thats it. no transcript of him saying holding bitcoin is illegal. no transcript of him being completely negative about it.

i even told you what he said, because he was joking saying
"went to an ATM, withdrew some bank notes and put 5000 rubles into his pocket. that no one, not even NATO can trace those bank notes. but with bitcoin every transaction is locked into history"

also if you knew russian you would know he is saying
"electronic money like bitcoin is very interesting,"

so please try to read the source. it will help you out. really. it would

in short the video is not a "dont do bitcoins" style of video. so it holds no substance to be used as a debunk.
th actual draft documents talk about people not registering data will get a civil fine if individual/small business.. or if large institution doing illegal stuff then expect largest fine or prison.

again please read th source material not the dramaqueen script media produces

[aso118]

This news item hasn't been picked up by any major news agency, and so I am inclined to agree with Franky1.
If things were indeed so drastic, I don't see any international agency passing the chance to sully the image of Russia. 

[Sengoko]

Russian government is being as stupid and immature as usual, They are literally preventing there people from a decent investment just because they are afraid from a real market for there currency real value...

[ahpku]

This news item hasn't been picked up by any major news agency, and so I am inclined to agree with Franky1.
If things were indeed so drastic, I don't see any international agency passing the chance to sully the image of Russia.  

"Sully the image of Russia"?! Because Russia is trying to curb crime within her borders?


http://sputniknews.com/business/20160225/1035349748/bitcoins-drug-dealiers-russia.html
Please read the thread I've linked to in my previous post.

@Feanky1: Not going to troll me twice. You'll just keep repeating that every news outlet is wrong & you're right. Not worth my time.

[Red-Apple]

they are. the fines and jailtime are for certain groups who use bitcoin... wait for it.. FOR ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES.

that's what i thought.
i have stopped believing in crap cryptocoinsnews.com spreads a long time ago.
they are just twisting every bitcoin related news and add lots of FUD and then put it up.

it is simply for more traffic to their crappy website.

[ahpku]

they are. the fines and jailtime are for certain groups who use bitcoin... wait for it.. FOR ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES.

that's what i thought.
i have stopped believing in crap cryptocoinsnews.com spreads a long time ago.
they are just twisting every bitcoin related news and add lots of FUD and then put it up.

it is simply for more traffic to their crappy website.

[BellaBitBit]

Every week we have different news about bitcoin law development on Russia, some weeks says that laws will allow bitcoin, some weeks says that bitcoin users will have 4 years of prison. I think that Russian government needs to clarify witch is its position about bitcoin. And newspapers need to wait for official news, not writing about rumors.

Yes to everything.  Seems like FUD from cryptonews and Russia should clarify where it stands. If they are going this direction then that is sad as bitcoin will be good for the globe.

[Kprawn]

I do not know what to believe when it comes to Russia, the jump from one extreme to the next, when it comes to Bitcoin. The amount of FUD being spread about Bitcoin is becoming insane. You need at least

7 different sources to confirm anything coming out of Russia, before you can believe anything. The one moment it is banned and the next moment they embrace the technology and want to implement it

everywhere. Let's wait for the other 6 sources to confirm this, before we believe or confirm it.

[ahpku]

...The one moment it is banned and the next moment they embrace the technology and want to implement it

everywhere. ...

Perhaps it's a language problem, so I'll explain: Jackbooted thugs may embrace chemistry blockchain, the technology behind meth labs Bitcoin, without embracing meth labs themselves Bitcoin itself.

Hope I've clarified things a bit

[franky1]

ok ill spoonfeed you,

people that are unregistered as money transmitters (selling prepaid debit cards on the blackmarket, loansharks, counterfeiters, etc) will get punished by

http://www.zakonrf.info/uk/187/

1. The manufacture, purchase, storage, transportation for use or sale, as well as the sale of counterfeit payment cards, orders for transfer of funds, documents or means of payment (except as provided for in Article 186 of this Code), as well as electronic means, electronic media, technical devices, computer programs intended for misuse of the admission, extradition, transfer of funds -

shall be punished by hard labor for a term not exceeding five years, or imprisonment for up to six years with a fine in the amount of one hundred thousand to three hundred thousand rubles or the salary or other income for a period of one to two years.

2. The same acts, committed by an organized group, -

shall be punished by hard labor for a term not exceeding five years, or imprisonment for up to seven years with a fine of up to one million rubles or the salary or other income for a period of up to five years or without it.

a law created far before bitcoins invention, for the purpose of slapping people for not being registered money transmitters.

which the new proposal is that the new punishments should be higher for large corporations/institutions. in the form of millions of rubles or 7 years in prison for unregistered money transmitters(exchangers)..
but actually smaller for individuals in the form of a civil fine for unregistered money transmitters( individual exchangers).


now here is the draft document to the entire other aspect of bitcoin regulation
duma
and here is some translations

important things if you are (hopefully) translating from the source is the stuff like "simplified identification" and "statement of persons" as this refers to REGISTERING

ok ill use google and then translate from computer to real english
draft bill

1. Issuance of money surrogates without statement of person or persons performing such issuanse, and/or should such issuance is not provided for in the legal codes of the Russian Federation, or is performed in violation of procedures established under the legislation of the Russian Federation,

if not registered as a money businesss, under the rules of the russian federation

in case such activity incorporates no criminally punishable acts invoke administrative penalty to the tune of

you wont get a prison sentance but instead a fine of...

twenty thousand to forty thousand rubles along with confiscation of the administrative violation item for citizens;

$250/£175 to $500/£350 if you are an individual exchanger

fifty thousand to seventy thousand rubles along with confiscation of the administrative violation item for entrepreneurs;

£450 to £630 if you are a small business exchanger

and it goes on and on but here is parts people gloss over

Note. The following actions are not deemed administrative violations subject to punishment provided herein:
1) usage of assets subject to being classified as money surrogates by a person being identified or being under the process of simplified identification.

[/b][/size]
its worth reading the source documentation. sometimes best to read it in a quiet space where you got time to take in the information and maybe even read it a few times incase you skip critical parts

all that is essentially changing is the punishment for being unregistered

[ahpku]

ok ill spoonfeed you,
people that are unregistered as money transmitters < snip >

Are you a registered money transmitter?
Do you understand what is involved in becoming a money transmitter?
No idea what's involved in Russia, but here, in the States, it begins with:

Regulation
Forty-eight US states regulate money transmitters although the laws vary from one state to the other.[4] Most of the states[5] require a surety bond with widely ranging amounts from as little as $25,000 to over $1 million and maintaining a minimum capital requirement.

-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_transmitter
Something tells me that people are not going to put down $1 million, or even $25k, for the privilege of using Bitcoin, but that's just me.

... now here is the draft document to the entire other aspect of bitcoin regulation
duma (http://asozd2c.duma.gov.ru/addwork/scans.nsf/ID/361FFC984B318CA543257F1F004A10C2/$FILE/957581-6_18122015_957581-6.pdf)
and here is some translations

No. That's the OLD proposed penalties, Franky. Those aren't news. The news is that

The Russian Finance Ministry has reportedly tightened its proposed penalties for the issuance of so-called money surrogates including digital currencies.

-- http://www.coindesk.com/report-russia-to-propose-7-year-prison-sentences-for-digital-currency-issuers/
If your claim held any water, the headline would read
"BREAKING: Russian Finance Ministry tightened did absolutely nothing about the penalties it proposed last January.
More news about shit that didn't change at 11."

But kudos for drawing me in.

[franky1]

so again you avoid reading the russian stuff and quote american stuff and media again..

well atleast we know your american so it wont affect you. so now you can go back to your other world in blissful peace.

atleast i also know why you have not read the real russian stuff because it doesnt affect you. but i really do wonder why your so emotional to want to spread fud.

have a nice day

[franky1]

No. That's the OLD proposed penalties, Franky. Those aren't news. The news is that

no,
coindesk is paraphrasing another media outlet Interfax, who supposedly spoke to "someone" close to the minfin. who proposes to make the punishments for code 187 even stricter.

it does not say that its law. and yes i showed the old code which was just a labour camp for 1-2 years. but in th last month there have been several IDEA's of new punishment.

but the punishments are irrelevant to your rhetoric. because it applies to money transmitters.. not money users.

EG exchanges NOT coffee shops.

basically if you own a coffee shape you are ok, but if your a localbitcoins trader going over the threshold that classes you as a money transmitter business (rather than small swaps as a hobby). then you need to register as such.

even in american law you are not classed as a money transmitter if your just doing occassional small swaps. but if your doing it for larger amounts and professionally. then you become a money transmitter.

its the same for russia and europe and even china. basically most developed countries,

but anyway your in america so relax

[ahpku]

so again you avoid reading the russian stuff and quote american stuff and media again..

well atleast we know your american so it wont affect you. so now you can go back to your other world in blissful peace.

atleast i also know why you have not read the real russian stuff because it doesnt affect you. but i really do wonder why your so emotional to want to spread fud.

have a nice day

Franky, not sure why you rage so much about my Russian. I was born & brought up in Russia. Most people born in Russia learn Russian, doesn't even require smarts.
When same people move to US, they learn English.
As far as being emotional? Not really. Somewhat concerned that someone might be stupid enough to take you seriously & end up getting secsed up da butt in some gulag.
I concede tho, that's pretty unlikely.
Because who takes you seriously, amirite?

P.S. Why are all the Bitcoin news outlets trolling us like that? Have they all been compromised?
They got IR lock on us, Franky! Soon there'll be no place for us Bitcoiners to hide

[Coinbuddy]

Prisons can't handles the volume of bitcoins.