In the past I gave him the benefit of doubt, but I recently followed the deposit address he gave me, just to notice that one of the addresses where the coins went to is still in use and currently holds 1000BTC.
Payb.tc/E&G/Not@Las/chowyunfat/Tackleberry/Hightower explained that he did not forward investments from his customers to Pirate, but just made some internal accounting changes regarding his own Pirate investment.
Effectively, this not only broke the traceability of the coins, but also serves as an excuse as to why Piratecoins are still moving.
At first I entirely blamed Pirate for the loss, but it feels more like a separate scam.
Until Pirate defaulted, Payb.tc/E&G/Not@Las/chowyunfat/Tackleberry/Hightower put a lot of effort into his website and forum thread to attract more investors. After the default, he dropped them like hot potatoes, offering no support at all.
Because he constantly changes his username it's better to just use the userid:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=258461. He's still active on the board, but refuses to respond to anything BitcoinMax related. There is no explanation or support at all.
2. He broke traceability with his internal accounting. Honestly, how complex was it to just forward the coins?
3. This also makes it impossible to tell if he had as many coins in BS&T as he received.
4. He refused to release investment details to "protect his investors"
even to the investors.
5. He still has not paid several withdrawal requests which were made
before Pirate defaulted.
6. He keeps changing his name. Why?
That's why I would like to see a scammer tag under his name.