Website online @ scammer-ianbakewell.com
What I'm attempting to do here, in my own humble, half-informed and disorganised way, is just bring together as much information as possible about the Ian Bakewell Scam, hopefully in an easily digestible form.
I am one of the unfortunate people who Ian Bakewell borrowed money from to start and run his Bitcoin business, which has now turned into a major internet fraud. Exact details are very hard to pin down due to the nature of the Bitcoin system, much of which is based on trust and personal agreements, but he has recently completely broken communication with the Bitcoin world, and deleted as much evidence as he could, after having stolen through various loans and share issues, amounts which are reliably estimated to amount to as much as US $100 000.
My plan is to write this as accessible to an audience not familiar with the esoteric world of Bitcoin. So first I think I should attempt the impossible, and try to explain briefly what Bitcoin is.
Bitcoin is pure genius. It may well be the best idea mankind has ever come up with. It was the brainchild of Satoshi Nakomoto, who developed the original idea, published a paper on it freely on the internet in 2008, and then promptly vanished. There has been much theorising about who this legendary, even mythical person, group or even superbeing might have been, but he's gone.
Bitcoin is many things to many people. Anyone involved with Bitcoin will give you a different definition based on their own feelings and passions. There are many forums for discussion of all aspects of Bitcoin, and remarkably for an internet phenomenon, most discussion is polite, reasoned and level headed and conducted in an atmosphere of cooperation, with much humour, gentle wisdom and generosity. I believe that the benevolent nature of Bitcoin tends to mostly attract decent people with a sound ethical backbone.
Bitcoin is a social and economic experiment. It's also a currency. And a fair, efficient system of transferring money with virtually no cost, almost instantly, anywhere in the world with an internet connection. It isn't linked directly to any existing currencies, but is usually compared to the US Dollar or Euro exchange rate. It is a free spirit which can not by it's nature be controlled or exploited by any single power grouping. The currency itself is currently being created in a process we call "mining" which consists of enthusiasts who are running powerful computers which have just one function, that of solving complex mathematical puzzles. When they have run enough computations to solve a block of this series of puzzles, they receive a reward for their work in the form of a newly created Bitcoin, which can actually be traded in for real world money at various "exchanges". In the very early days back in 2009 each bitcoin could be exchanged for a few US cents. In early April 2013, you could sell one Bitcoin for nearly $300. The exchange rate has fluctuated wildly, but with a steady upward trend in the last 4 years, and many fortunes have been made and lost, many in the pure trading process, but also through Bitcoin based businesses, scams, gambling and markets for various commodities, some on the fringes of most international law.
The process of getting and spending Bitcoins can, depending on one's cryptographic skills be more or less anonymous, and many of the transactions are made as agreements beween individuals, and are more or less "off the radar". But the paradoxical side to this transaction process is that there is a publicly available accounting ledger, an accounting system known as "The Blockchain", in which every fraction of the currency itself, as well as every transaction is numbered and publicly recorded in a way that cannot possibly be tampered with, so in fact, with enough resources, every coin and every transaction can be precisely traced and documented.
This wonderful social experiment has attracted a vast range of enthusiasts, of every political, philosophical and ethnographic flavour. Extreme right wing economists, radical leftist crypto-anarchists, genius software developers and a huge body of everyday decent people attracted by the high ideals are enthusiastically engaged daily in debating and shaping this emerging powerhouse from the ground up. The possibility to create a just economic system as a viable alternative to the rotten, corrupt and dying financial criminality which is currently dominating and devastating the world's economic balance, has got a lot of very bright people very excited. And, not least, it's very possible, especially in these early goldrush days, to make an honest profit without exploitation. The established financial institutions of the world are rightly scared of this growing phenomenon.
Which brings us back on topic. The Scammer Ian Bakewell.
Back in August 2012, and really personable young Canadian named Ian James Bakewell turned up on the Bitcoin scene, announcing that he was planning to start a company to purchase computer equipment to set up a Bitcoin miming business and was looking for crowdfunding. Someone asked immediately "So, another guy trying to get the community to buy equipment for them.... what makes yours any different?"
He answered "I want to build something solid and real here while keep my investors safe and giving competitive returns. Just trying to be as open and honest as I can"
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=104489.msg1160497#msg1160497He posted some really cute pictures of himself, along with unusually clear and detailed identification of his identity, his address, his union card, bank and financial statements and his equipment orders which can be seen here:
https://i.imgur.com/4uPiJnx.jpghttp://imgur.com/a/V85SVAfter some discussion, he stated that he wished to "..to operate in a more transparent, ethical, and timely manner "
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=104489.msg1178842#msg1178842 Everyone loved this cute, open and honest looking young guy, and a lot of people gave him money through his crowdfunding scheme- a share issue on the young and growing GLBSE Bitcoin stock exchange, in exchange for a promise that they would still own the equipment in the event of failure of the company, and would be given full voting rights on any major decisions about running the company, known now as just BAKEWELL. He spent CAD $4000 of our money on two mining computer rigs, and started to produce an income, and pay dividends out to his shareholders. All great stuff.
GLBSE totally collapsed in chaos in September 2012, without warning, due to still unresolved catastrophic management decisions, leaving all asset issuers without any information about their shareholders, and many shareholders lost all their investments and thus a lot of money in the confusion.
Along with many of the other share issuers from GLBSE, Ian Bakewell went silent, refusing to respond to any requests for information, occasionally publishing hints that he felt that the whole enterprise was a write-off, and over. Everyone had lost everything. He, of course, still had all that equipment and the profits from its continuing mining income, and the money from sales of shares over and above the cost of the computers.
He suddenly reappeared around Christmas 2012, and announced that the Bakewell asset would reopen for business on the newly established virtual trading exchange BTCT. It's operator, burnside, warmly welcomed him as one of the first assets to trade virtual shares on BTCT, and did a lot of work helping Ian Bakewell recover from the recent chaos, regain his credibility and reputation, and import all the now recovered shareholder information into the new and efficient BTCT system.
https://btct.co/Bakewell resumed paying very regular dividends to shareholders, even for the lost period between September and December, and even a jolly Christmas bonus. What a nice guy! Everyone loved him again.
But the contract published on BTCT was a mess. It was bits of the original contract from the days of GLBSE, with no clear future plan, and a operational details which seriously concerned shareholders, largely about how Ian now controlled a very large block of the shares through questionable practices, giving himself a majority in any changes to the running of the fund requiring a vote. Many people started to question this practice, as the shareholders were being left with absolutely no say in the running of the company, and many started to feel that Bakewell had taken their money promising transparency, ethical practices, voting rights on important company decisions, and that all these promises were quietly being eroded.
Then, without warning on the 3rd January 2013, Bakewell kicked his benefactor, burnside, in the balls and jumped ship to the rival virtual exchange, Bitfunder. All share information was promptly and efficiently transferred by burnside over to Bitfunder, with just a short, calm note that he was saddened and disappointed by the treachery.
Ukyo, the operator of Bitfunder welcomed Bakewell to Bitfunder, and the dividends soon starting flowing out to shareholders on a very regular and punctual basis. Maybe all had stablised at last? But shareholders continued to question many of his operating practices, never receiving a civil reply.
But then on January 31st 2013, Bakewell suddenly announced that he would stop paying dividends as he wanted to keep them for purchasing the new generation of Bitcoin mining equipment which was soon to become available. No vote on this one. We waited.
Towards the end of February, people started to notice that Ian Bakewell was apparently selling off many of his personal shares, and many questions were asked, again with no response.
Then he suddenly burst into activity all over the place, approaching many individuals and organisations for loans of money and shares, obviously fervently inspired by some new business plan he was convinced would make him, and by implication, BAKEWELL the company, rich. He negotiated many such deals, some of which became public record, many did not, so estimates of how much debt he was holding at the time of his disappearance vary wildly, but are quite possibly somewhere in the area of $100 000. And he still has control of the mining computers purchased in 2012, as well as a large upcoming shipment of new generation mining equipment, which will return very large profit margins very quickly. All, of course, purchased with borrowed money.
His last public posting was on March 3rd 2013, and as far as I know, nobody has been able to contact him since that date.
The BAKEWELL asset was frozen for trading at some point in early April 2013. Ukyo, the operator of Bitfunder has has been travelling and unavailable for comment to date, but has recently sent word that he will comment when he arrives back on the 19th or 20th April. He claims to have had some contact with Ian Bakewell, and will post this information on his return.
Around the same time, Ian Bakewell deleted all his posts in his thread on Bitcoin Forum, changed the title to simply "CLOSED" and posted a single mocking smiley face as a finger up to his shareholders and loyal supporters.
He received the badge of shame from the Bitcoin Forum, the "Scammer tag", reserved for those degenerates who have been proven to haave financially defrauded other members of the Bitcoin community.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=63614At the beginning of April, most people came to realise that, yes, he had done a runner. And various suggestions started to trickle in about whether there might be any point in attempting to recover anything from the seemingly hopeless situation.
A disparate group of disappointed shareholders, together holding over 60% of the Bakewell shares, along with a handful of the people who had tragically loaned Ian Bakewell money or shares have begun to discuss online various mostly half-baked schemes for how to report him to the authorities, try to block delivery of the new equipment, have his existing equipment seized by local police as part of a fraud investigation, publicly shame him, and try to find some sort of justice out of the situation.
Notoriously, in 2012, a Bitcoiner, calling himself pirateat40, set up a get rich quick scheme promising returns of 7% weekly on investments, ran his operation for half a year, with many early investors getting in and out in time with huge profits, before he predictably disappeared, with many millions of Dollars having exchanged hands, and a completely unknown profit from the scam. There probably wasn't actually so much left in the pot by the end. But the Bitcoin world was rocked to its foundations with huge losses and scandal as so many people had believed in his fairy tale promises, and committed far too much to it. Said pirate has faced no legal retribution whatsoever to date. There are so many legal grey areas surrounding Bitcoin as it is all so new, which scares many from initiating any action. Many value their anonymity, and are unwilling to step into the limelight. Many are embarassed as they have been duped again.
On the 10th of April 2013, a new thread was started on the Bitcoin Forum titled "Bakewell action proposal- call for volunteers" :
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=172471.0where the saga is slowly but surely progressing.
What is really interesting here is that this appears to be the first concerted attempt by a group of defrauded Bitcoin investors who seem pretty determined, in a laid back and totally non violent way, to follow through, and actually go after him. They are receiving increasing encouragement from many in the Bitcoin community who are sick of seeing so many Bitcoin scammers defraud people and get away with it. There have been so many scams and scandals damaging the credibility of our fantastic Bitcoin experiment, and many poeple have had more than enough of this sort of behaviour. We would rather leave it to the Bankers and Politicians to behave like cockroaches, and we are starting to demand better behaviour from those who wish to be part of the Bitcoin movement.
Margaret Thatcher is dead, and the world is well overdue for a new value system based on fairness rather than greed, justice rather that state sanctioned violence, and fair and sustainable distribution of the wealth and resources of the world. I believe that Bitcoin might be a key element in this ethical revival. And it might all kick off with a small group of people's probably futile appeal for natural justice in pursuing a sad little man who decided to steal from exactly the wrong people at the right time.
I appeal for support for our cause, please spread the word about this story as widely as you can. Especially if you know this lowlife personally.
There will be inaccuracies, omissions and stupidity here, I'm only human. Please PM me with any corrections, suggestions, encouragement, threats of violence or ridicule, all are equally welcome.
If you're not a member of the Bitcoin Forum I can be contacted at:
est3banesteban@aol.comThank you for your time,
strello
Further references
Here's his information (which he provided or was publicly available) to contact him.
Original Thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=146689.0Profile:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=63614Pictures:
http://imgur.com/a/V85SVIan James Bakewell
Suite 408
9903 104 ST NW
Edmonton, Alberta
(It's downtown.)
Google Maps:
http://goo.gl/maps/dnqrBHere's his face:
https://i.imgur.com/4uPiJnx.jpgHe's 27 years old, born Jan-24-1986 and about 6'2" or more tall.
Residence:
Hillside Estates
Edmonton Alberta
Website:
https://sites.google.com/site/hillsideestatescondominium/(there's info to contact the on-site manager)
Email:
ian.bakewell@gmail.comPhone: +1 587 989 8448
Skype: ian.james.bakewell
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/IanBakewellFacebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ianbakewellLinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ibakewellGoogle Plus:
https://plus.google.com/109173548399743645280/postsBlogger:
http://ianbakewell.blogspot.ch/Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/user/ianbakewellYoutube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ianbakewellDomain (old, unregistered now):
http://www.ianbakewell.comLitecoin Forum Profile:
http://forum.litecoin.net/index.php?PHPSESSID=c9v582e1933cup1ftkl3clej11&action=profile;u=7744Google Buzz:
https://profiles.google.com/109173548399743645280/buzzGoogle Reader:
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/Ian.BakewellVentrino Forum:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MMKGhX55uacJ:www.ventrino.com/forums/index.php%3Fshowuser%3D1945+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=chAff Funnel Forum:
http://www.affiliatefunnel.com/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=10083&sid=b4f5f23cb37b3b6fc7be6ff9d99a0375Bitcoin Address:
1MT2nwTUkGvNMcrbB3Pi18cowNSd1UDjgU
His "Bakewell" mining operation:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=104489.0https://btct.co/security/BAKEWELLhttps://bitfunder.com/asset/BAKEWELLEdmonton Police, Downtown Devision
Website:
http://www.edmontonpolice.ca/ContactEPS/EPSPoliceStations/DowntownDivision.aspxGoogle Maps (shows closest stations):
http://goo.gl/maps/TQADZPeople that know him:
His girlfriend (unknown) and...
Robin Bouwhuis (831061)
Landmetersweg 27
Den Helder, 1785 HA, NL
Website:
http://www.dutchgeek.com/Bio:
http://www.dutchgeek.com/about-me/Email:
robin@dutchgeek.comWhois:
http://whois.domaintools.com/dutchgeek.comTwitter:
https://twitter.com/Robin_BouwhuisSecond Twitter:
https://twitter.com/DutchGeekFace:
https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/77823256/robin2_100x100.jpgFacebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DutchGeekAnother website (he & Ian owned):
http://whois.domaintools.com/easysurfexchange.comProof of association:
https://twitter.com/Robin_Bouwhuis/status/1204937543http://archive.aweber.com/tonytezak/11IpN/t/EasySurfExchange_New_Co_owner_.htmHis girlfriend's Facebook, now deleted:
https://www.facebook.com/jen.......... identity and address now confirmed!
Other related threads on the Bitcoin Forum:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=150830.msg1606156#msg1606156https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=172471.0https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=172471.0https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=165050.0https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=133362.0
