MtGox account in the USA has been seized by the DHS?

[keatonatron]

Is a seizure warrant difficult to forge? 

Depends on if the person you're trying to scam has ever seen one before or not 

I assume it'd be harder with a company, because people know they aren't personally at risk and would start making calls without panicking. If you showed up at someone's house at 10 pm with a bunch of uniformed officers and freaked them out, they might let you do whatever you wanted, just trying to not be taken to jail.

[Rassah]

Still feeling a little awkward that this is coming from an office 15 minutes away from my house... 

[Kluge]

It's not fake, DHS has confirmed:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57584511-38/homeland-security-cuts-off-dwolla-bitcoin-transfers/

They may just be going after internet gambling rather than trying to kill bitcoin...

http://calvinayre.com/2013/05/15/business/homeland-security-seize-bitcoin-linked-payment-processor-funds/

Do you learn to make that kind of face while on the job, or is it one of the requirements for getting hired to such a position. I've tried to make this face in front of the mirror several times now, but every time I try, I burst out in laughter, perhaps I'm simply not cut out to be holding any high ranking important position! 

Hmm. That's the face I made when I read they might try using online gambling as the reason to shut Gox* down.
*Gox's Dwolla account
**Don't jump down my throat!

[joesmoe2012]

They are gonna pull a bunch of interstate commerce tax laws out....

[bassclef]

I have a feeling that you can probably kiss that money good-bye ... goes for anybody with anything in Dwolla Mutum Sigilium account transiting to/from Mt. Gox.

Seizure warrants are to seize the alleged proceeds of crime before the "criminals" can have a chance to state their case in court. A sealed warrant and etc means they are going to go full "anti-terrorist" mode and do everything behind closed doors, secret courts, etc .... basically the money is gone, locked up in secret legal battles to infinity, which suits the Feds just fine.

Did you think all the Libertarians were idiotic tinfoil-hatters crying wolf about the big bad out of control govt.? Just watch.

Just to follow up on this, as I was worried about the same thing. My story begins when I transferred funds to Mt Gox's Dwolla account this morning (bad timing is an understatement).

Two hours later I get the email from Dwolla about DHS. I'm thinking, "Oh shit, there goes my money, down the money hole, to fund a massive, bloated bureaucracy no less."

A bit shaken up, I send a worried email to Gox. They respond within hours saying, "Yes, we realize what happened, we don't know anything yet, your patience is appreciated, blah blah." Now I'm making plans on how to break this to my wife, thinking I'm going to be living outside for awhile.

Then the incredible happened. Just a few hours ago, I get an email saying my account has been funded for the full amount. Thank God. I buy some cheap coins and get them the hell out of there.

I figure one of two things happened: I got lucky and the funds were transferred out in time, or Mt Gox is willing to take this one on the chin to keep existing customers. Thankfully my experience ended happily. I hope others have a similar experience.

[neofutur]

What the heck is Dwolla? For retards that cannot fill in a wire transfer form?

Retards are those who don't want to pay expensive wire transfer fees?

Retards are the ones who continue using a company after said company declared themselves to be against everything BTC represents. That was what, 1 and a half year ago already?
donkeys will be donkeys, I guess...

they also killed tradehill in the process of adding sneaky chargebacks :

http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/177_45/tradehill-dwolla-bitcoin-exchange-digital-currency-lawsuit-1047273-1.html

see also their anti bitcoin TOS

[ralree]

Regardless of what you think of the situation, this coupled with the lawsuit from Coinlab may mean some serious issues for Gox in the near future.  It might be a good idea to play it safe and withdraw your funds from Gox either using an international wire transfer or just by buying bitcoins and transferring them to an address you control directly.  May prevent tears at some point in the future - no reason to risk it.

[mp420]

Regardless of what you think of the situation, this coupled with the lawsuit from Coinlab may mean some serious issues for Gox in the near future.  It might be a good idea to play it safe and withdraw your funds from Gox either using an international wire transfer or just by buying bitcoins and transferring them to an address you control directly.  May prevent tears at some point in the future - no reason to risk it.

Only I still trust MtGox more than any other exchange and I kinda want to keep my fiat:btc ratio at the current level. I'm almost all fiat on MtGox.

If any BTC business is "too big to fail" it's MtGox.

[lexico]

Only I still trust MtGox more than any other exchange and I kinda want to keep my fiat:btc ratio at the current level. I'm almost all fiat on MtGox.

If any BTC business is "too big to fail" it's MtGox.

lol. perhaps you should look up the definition of 'too big too fail' again.  they can quit/stop/fail any time they want.

Stop trusting exchanges. it doesn't make sense.

I like what bitcoin.de is doing much more; they are not storing $$ or €€, its just a marketplace and you pay the other person directly.

[Rampion]

Well, so no other chance for Dwolla users than buying BTC with all their MtGox balance, to then transfer those BTC to their own wallets.

What has no meaning is to exchange BTC for fiat if you use Dwolla, that's for sure.

[box27]

Stop trusting exchanges. it doesn't make sense.
I like what bitcoin.de is doing much more; they are not storing $$ or €€, its just a marketplace and you pay the other person directly.

That's far from a perfect system. It's a great site but we also want(not need) to trade in the the centralized places. Like an escrow where you don't have to directly deal with thousands of peoples bank accounts and don't have to be responsible for checking who you're dealing with. But WTF. I have never heard of anything like this. Like the DHS seized the Bank of America's or UBSs account.

[leopard2]

Look I don't know what to say  

I have had coworkers going for Mtgox because "they are the largest"  

When I saw their statement about putting customers through AML hell, when they access their website via a proxy, that is all I needed to know.

Then to make things worse, people use extra intermediaries, for a PEER TO PEER bitcoin!?! Dwolla, Paypal, and whatnot?

If only 10% of Mtgox customers would trade on localbitcoins, this would not have happened. At the moment Gox is 80% and spreads on localbitcoins are awful, but that can change.

Sure exchanges are comfortable but they are completely unnecessary; all that is required is real people with bank accounts and BTC wallets.

any money service business licenses???  That I cannot afford...

unless of course you're just assuming all the people selling bitcoins in the US are ok with breaking the law... which may be accurate, but not for me.

Now you sound misguided. So all people in the US buying or selling BTC from a private party are criminals? Over 1900 felons in your country, on localbitcoins alone? That's news to me. As long as you are not selling/buying for someone else that is fine. If you sell a $100 euro bill, or a silver coin, to your neighbor, is that illegal? Hm in the US anything is possible.   

[EskimoBob]

... blah blah." Now I'm making plans on how to break this to my wife, thinking I'm going to be living outside for awhile....

WTF is wrong with men in USA? Who wears pants in your house? You or your wife? WTF!

and now, back to the topic at hand...

[Rassah]

Now you sound misguided. So all people in the US buying or selling BTC from a private party are criminals? Over 1900 felons in your country, on localbitcoins alone? That's news to me. As long as you are not selling/buying for someone else that is fine. If you sell a $100 euro bill, or a silver coin, to your neighbor, is that illegal? Hm in the US anything is possible.   

According to FinCEN thingy, if you buy and sell more than $1,000 a day without a license, yes, you are a criminal 

[leopard2]

Really what is going on in the minds of DHS employees? They arrest students for jailbreaking game consoles, and stuff like that. "Homeland security" how cynical is that.

They must be paid really well, or how can you stand such a job when you know exactly that you are just a nuisance to everyone else.

Their suicide and divorce rates must be enormous. 

It is clear that this Dwolla guy made a mistake filling out a form, but what the heck has that to do with homeland security?!?

[Rassah]

Really what is going on in the minds of DHS employees? They arrest students for jailbreaking game consoles, and stuff like that. "Homeland security" how cynical is that.

They must be paid really well, or how can you stand such a job when you know exactly that you are just a nuisance to everyone else.

Nah, they are control-hungry psycopaths who are of "the world needs strict rules and laws" mindset. I'm sure they believe what they are doing is right.

By the way, I've seen a few people thanking Obama for various crap here and there (regulations, IRS scandal, etc). Can we get a "Thank you Bush" for the DHS one?

EDIT: Sorry, psychopath is not the correct term for this. I don't know which one is...

[joesmoe2012]

Really what is going on in the minds of DHS employees? They arrest students for jailbreaking game consoles, and stuff like that. "Homeland security" how cynical is that.

They must be paid really well, or how can you stand such a job when you know exactly that you are just a nuisance to everyone else.

Their suicide and divorce rates must be enormous. 

It is clear that this Dwolla guy made a mistake filling out a form, but what the heck has that to do with homeland security?!?

I'm not so sure they did make a mistake on the form. They have high priced lawyers setting all this stuff up. Mtgox was licensed not the subsidy, so maybe it wasn't required to be a msb since the parent company was doing all the actual exchanges.

[sturle]

Really what is going on in the minds of DHS employees?

Hard to know, because they are Special Agents.  They went to special schools for special children, attend the Special Olympics, etc.  They are not like the rest of us.

[joesmoe2012]

Really what is going on in the minds of DHS employees?

Hard to know, because they are Special Agents.  They went to special schools for special children, attend the Special Olympics, etc.  They are not like the rest of us.

Did they get to ride on the short bus?!

My mother always told me i was special....

[firefop]

STILL no response from MtGox on the issue, despite people berating them on FB and twitter

I had a gox > dwolla transfer in progress. I used the contact us section on mtgox - they were prompt in crediting the USD back to my gox account. Was a very small transfer however...


Personally I'm still going to use gox for some small speculation - but I've drastically reduced the amounts I keep there until we see how this turns out.