Andrew Laurus hoax

[Ytterbium]

EDIT: This was obviously a hoax.  The WSJ has issued a correction (behind paywall here) and The Tavistock group has put out a press release disclaiming any association:

"Unfortunately, many immature investments and investors would like the association of private investors like Joe Lewis. They bring instant credibility," said Douglas McMahon, senior managing director of Tavistock Group, a private investment organization founded by Lewis.

"'Our' Joe Lewis has nothing do with Bitcoin, Phoenix Funds or Andrew Laurus," said McMahon.

So the question is, who's behind the Hoax?  My guess is this "Andrew Laurus" person was probably spreading rumors about this "deal" as part of some sort of scheme. Both of the reporters who covered (at bitcoin examiner and the WSJ) follow him on twitter.

_____
Old version of text:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323997004578644491403250124.html

Joe Lewis, a billionaire foreign-exchange trader who teamed up with hedge-fund manager George Soros in 1992 to bet against the Bank of England, is the latest high-profile financier to throw his weight behind the virtual currency called bitcoin.

Mr. Lewis leads the Phoenix Fund, a Zurich-based private-equity fund that on Tuesday plans to invest $200 million in Avalon, a company that makes computer servers aimed at creating bitcoins, according to people familiar with the situation.

....

The Phoenix Fund was set up this year to invest in bitcoin mining-hardware companies. It looked at several of Avalon's rivals in the sector, including Butterfly Labs and KnCMiner but decided against investing, according to a person familiar with the private-equity firm's strategy.

....

The bitcoin deal was put together by Andrew Laurus, a former government-bonds salesman at Lehman Brothers who is also an investor in the fund. Avalon was set up by Yifu Guo, a pioneer in the bitcoin-mining industry. He was part of the team that developed the first ASIC bitcoin mining hardware. ASIC stands for application-specific integrated circuit, a type of custom-designed microchip. Mr. Guo couldn't be reached for comment.

So here's the question: Does this explain all of Josh's weird behavior lately? It's likely that Joe Lewis didn't tell the other people he was looking into investing with that he was also looking possibilities as well.

With Inaba's hubris, he probably assumed the deal was a definite go ahead.  That would explain why he was in here telling everyone that he was going to laugh at people who were predicting their failure, that he was going to "stick it up [our] asses" and that the bitcoin talk forum was a "minor player" in everything - clearly alluding to "major players" elsewhere, like Joe Lewis.

Anyway, obviously this guy decided BFL wasn't for him.  They have a chip design, but Avalon (and ASICMiner) have probably made enough to fund 20nm designs on their own.

Interestingly he also looked at KnC and wasn't interested.    

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[Dalkore]

Great find sir.   The speculation will be rampant.  200m seems like a large amount when you have just over 1 billion market cap total.   There must be another play that either we don't know about it we will soon.

[Ytterbium]

Great find sir.   The speculation will be rampant.  200m seems like a large amount when you have just over 1 billion market cap total.   There must be another play that either we don't know about it we will soon.

Yes, and the fact that the entire industry only brings in $131 million a year at the current prices, and will halve over time.

And of course, you need to have less then half the network as well.  It's really unlikely that you could make back a $200 million dollar investment purely by mining bitcoin.  This guy and other wallstreet types clearly think the price is going to go up.

[iikun]

thats assuming this story hasnt been misreported

A $200m investment seems overkill given BTC's worth. $20m would easily fund a very professional next gen chip development without the necessity for pre-order funding etc. Why would someone invest 10x that?

[crazy_rabbit]

It's an enormous amount, yes- but its small if you believe what the long term value of bitcoin will be. Also, it will allow chips to be made extraordinarily cheaply and embed able in all sort of commodity goods. (USB hubs, etc). If you believe in Bitcoin, and that it will be worth one day trillions, then it's not so much. :-)

[Bitcoinorama]

What's odd is the time the news broke, a Sunday eve, so some journals have run without confirming sources,  the fake shill twitter account that speads fud about KnC for a guy called Andrew Laurus who checks out no where else, and is potentially the worst possible person to have connected with Bitcoin (ex senior gov advisor and Lehman's bond broker - the type of person Bitcoin was specifically created to remove from influence) a half arsed landing page for a site that bears aesthetically too much similarity to the lines drawn in banknotes and a domain created on Friday.

The only thing that made me double take was the WSJ, but they aren't immune to flakey journalism, if this is what it is.

Personally I think someone is trying to flush out Yifu and elicit a response, by causing enough FUD any real contact anyone has for him goes bezerk and he has to respond to question after question until he come's out of hiding from the public and put's the record straight on this, and then clearly the bulk chips issue which he has avoided addressing. I'd hazard a guess Yifu is putting his head down and is trying to deliver on his promises...

[johnyj]

http://bitcoinexaminer.org/avalon-might-be-getting-a-200-million-investment-and-20nm-technology-to-become-the-leader-of-the-mining-market/

In this branch the only important factor is speed, BFL is proved to be too slow, Orsoc is good in ASIC design but they have been late to the bitcoin game thus don't follow what is happening behind the scene

There is one thing strange, the Avalon chip is designed by gridchip and now their cooperation broke, so I suppose both NGZhang and Yifu Guo have no good idea about the full design of a working ASIC chip. Maybe that is what those 200million is used for, they will fund a professional ASIC design house to manually create a high-efficient 20nm chip

If I had that amount of fund, I will invest in a quantum chip design

[Bitcoinorama]

https://mobile.twitter.com/ScottWapnerCNBC/statuses/364370798892421120

[Loredo]

https://mobile.twitter.com/ScottWapnerCNBC/statuses/364370798892421120

Not going to read it; Twitter is the root of all of this bullshit, in true fact.  "Journalists" responding to random 120 character anonymous messages.   

The bitcointalk quote of the day, which I failed to note the location of, was someone said Twitter is for narcissists.  Excellent.

The one I want to read is the feckin' WSJ online's correction.  Jackasses.

[yuriygeorge]

Wow, how does the WSJ eff that up so bad.

[Loredo]

Wow, how does the WSJ eff that up so bad.

Same way CNN, and MSNBC, and Fox, and Bloomberg have all fucked up recently.  Their "journalist," who these days is a kid out of school, because the legitimate journalists aren't found on the internet side and won't be for a generation, wants to get out before anybody else, and so reports the first bullshit tweet. 

And others respond to the same bullshit Tweet on that network, as well as the now "legitimatized" news blog report, the FUD and bullshit increase exponentially, and the bullshit self-confirms.

[Ytterbium]

What's odd is the time the news broke, a Sunday eve, so some journals have run without confirming sources,  the fake shill twitter account that speads fud about KnC for a guy called Andrew Laurus who checks out no where else, and is potentially the worst possible person to have connected with Bitcoin (ex senior gov advisor and Lehman's bond broker - the type of person Bitcoin was specifically created to remove from influence) a half arsed landing page for a site that bears aesthetically too much similarity to the lines drawn in banknotes and a domain created on Friday.

The only thing that made me double take was the WSJ, but they aren't immune to flakey journalism, if this is what it is.

Personally I think someone is trying to flush out Yifu and elicit a response, by causing enough FUD any real contact anyone has for him goes bezerk and he has to respond to question after question until he come's out of hiding from the public and put's the record straight on this, and then clearly the bulk chips issue which he has avoided addressing. I'd hazard a guess Yifu is putting his head down and is trying to deliver on his promises...

There were actually two journalists working on the story, maybe one was just filling in background information.  I suppose it would be possible to con someone at the WSJ but I wouldn't think that a good journalist would would write a story like that without multiple sources unless she had a serious amount of trust in them.

I do think the $200m figure seems way off, though. I think there might be a much smaller deal and the $200 figure got pulled from those old stories and injected maybe some of the sources got confused.

[Bitcoinorama]

The answer is the hoaxster pulled this shit on a Sunday eve, and journalists are so desperate to be the first to 'break' news and get the story shared through social media, and thus notoriety, they forget to do any err...journalism!

[jspielberg]

The answer is the hoaxster pulled this shit on a Sunday eve, and journalists are so desperate to be the first to 'break' news and get the story shared through social media, and thus notoriety, they forget to do any err...journalism!

So... I was just thinking about this hoax.

Who benefits? 
Who suffers?

I guess the newspapers suffer, but journalism has declined quite a bit and is used to getting black eyes.

Seems like Yifu doesn't really benefit or suffer.  He might get more pings on his phone/email/PM, but that is a poor way to reach him these days anyway.  Bitsyn.com already has plenty of Bitcoin exposure... though maybe a few people know a little more.  It isn't like he needed a $200M to continue his operations.

I guess it could put pressure on big investment bank/venture capital types to get into the game... which I guess would benefit the new players looking for risky/desparate capital.

Bitcoin community might benefit slightly, with a bitcoin related scandal that doesn't involve bubbles or theft or SR.  Looks like BTC/USD got a small bump on Mt.Gox, but looks like it was probably unrelated.

Trying to "follow the money" here is proving difficult.

[Bitcoinorama]

The answer is the hoaxster pulled this shit on a Sunday eve, and journalists are so desperate to be the first to 'break' news and get the story shared through social media, and thus notoriety, they forget to do any err...journalism!

So... I was just thinking about this hoax.

Who benefits? 
Who suffers?

I guess the newspapers suffer, but journalism has declined quite a bit and is used to getting black eyes.

Seems like Yifu doesn't really benefit or suffer.  He might get more pings on his phone/email/PM, but that is a poor way to reach him these days anyway.  Bitsyn.com already has plenty of Bitcoin exposure... though maybe a few people know a little more.  It isn't like he needed a $200M to continue his operations.

I guess it could put pressure on big investment bank/venture capital types to get into the game... which I guess would benefit the new players looking for risky/desparate capital.

Bitcoin community might benefit slightly, with a bitcoin related scandal that doesn't involve bubbles or theft or SR.  Looks like BTC/USD got a small bump on Mt.Gox, but looks like it was probably unrelated.

Trying to "follow the money" here is proving difficult.

My belief a troll was trying to flush out Yifu with any response, forcing his hand over the chip delivery.

Personally I feel Yifu will have laughed and sighed a huge sigh of relief as the forums and customers are distracted momentarily with FUD.

Hopefully he's putting his head down and is trying to appease you guys...

[Ytterbium]

My belief a troll was trying to flush out Yifu with any response, forcing his hand over the chip delivery.

Personally I feel Yifu will have laughed and sighed a huge sigh of relief as the forums and customers are distracted momentarily with FUD.

Hopefully he's putting his head down and is trying to appease you guys...

So you think someone with a chip order was able to con a WSJ reporter, along with the person from bitcoinwatch? How exactly would they have been able to do it?

You actually think that a WSJ reporter would write an article like this based entirely on email correspondence from someone she'd never met?

It could be fake, but I seriously doubt some random chip buyer would be able to get a fake story placed in the WSJ. If they could, they wouldn't need chips as they could just make money manipulating the stock market. 

[Bitcoinorama]

No I think the reporter probably has an interest in Bitcoin, is probably a member here, or follows press releases.

I believe the hoaxster has some Internet marketing experience and knows how to submit copy to multiple pr distro sites.

I believe the WSJ journal ran with the BS story from Bitcoin examiner. I would hazard the author there is very gullible and jumped at the submission of an anonymous rumour, which she practically admits;

http://bitcoinexaminer.org/avalon-might-be-getting-a-200-million-investment-and-20nm-technology-to-become-the-leader-of-the-mining-market/#comment-3379

Irrespective of whether the reporter is a gullible moron on a wannabe Bitcoin news site, or a gullible moron working at the Wall Street Jounal, both are hungry for social media likes and shares, and of course their biggest prize; backlinks, which ups them and their name in Google's organic search results. Basic search engine optimisation 101 buddy...

Yesterday Maria Santos was a nobody wannabe Bitcoin specialist journalist, today she's a comfirmed well known moron pseudo-journalist that doesn't even enter a simple google search for her subject matter to confirm it's legitimacy, much like a lot of 'investors' before 'investing' on this forum!!

The Wall Street Journal though;

[Loredo]

I have a triple facepalm plus a shocked woman, and was going to raise, but I don't know how to link an image,  so I'll fold and give you the pot with two facepalms.

The real fallout from this, I'll bet, is it put 20nm on the scammer radar.  I wouldn't be surprised if the next cold-fusion powered, mineral oil cooled usb stick 4TH device IPO isn't 20nm.

"today she's a comfirmed well known moron pseudo-journalist " Her mother must be proud.

[Ytterbium]

I believe the WSJ journal ran with the BS story from Bitcoin examiner. I would hazard the author there is very gullible and jumped at the submission of an anonymous rumour, which she practically admits;

http://bitcoinexaminer.org/avalon-might-be-getting-a-200-million-investment-and-20nm-technology-to-become-the-leader-of-the-mining-market/#comment-3379

Yes, the bitcoinexamer person basically said she was getting the story from internet rumors, as well as from a single "source."   The WSJ article is not like that though.

I think you're vastly over-estimating how easy it is for a random person to plant a story in the WSJ. Again, my point is - how exactly do you think someone would con the WSJ?  Do you seriously think they just run stuff that shows up in their email inbox without even verifying the identity of their sources?

Someone with a long standing relationship with a WSJ reporter could potentially do it, but not some random upset chip buyer.

The WSJ reporter couldn't have gotten the article from the bitcoin examiner, because it has details that story doesn't.

[Bitcoinorama]

I believe the WSJ journal ran with the BS story from Bitcoin examiner. I would hazard the author there is very gullible and jumped at the submission of an anonymous rumour, which she practically admits;

http://bitcoinexaminer.org/avalon-might-be-getting-a-200-million-investment-and-20nm-technology-to-become-the-leader-of-the-mining-market/#comment-3379

Yes, the bitcoinexamer person basically said she was getting the story from internet rumors, as well as from a single "source."   The WSJ article is not like that though.

I think you're vastly over-estimating how easy it is for a random person to plant a story in the WSJ. Again, my point is - how exactly do you think someone would con the WSJ?  Do you seriously think they just run stuff that shows up in their email inbox without even verifying the identity of their sources?

Someone with a long standing relationship with a WSJ reporter could potentially do it, but not some random upset chip buyer.

The WSJ content is word for word based on that article. No new substance. It appears to have been that easy...

I don't think anyone approached the WSJ, as I said it is likely the jorno keeps an eye out here, especially w.r.t. the timing of the Bitcoin examiner article succeeded by the WSJ hours later when this forum was still mulling it over.