Alpha Technology Litecoin (Scrypt) ASIC Miner Order Batch 1 Now!

[Slipknot79]

I should probably add for those who are not in the UK and are considering using Money claim online you will need a service address. This is an address in the UK where mail is sent, then forwarded on to you. Here is one such company, I have never used them so check them out yourselves but they do forward mail internationally and accept personal as well as business customers.

http://www.cityaddress.co.uk/index.html

Hope this helps

Thank you retro, im collecting your posts on my desktop.

I have given Alpha some time by 31st July to pay full refund. But i dunno what i have to do after this deadline, there are many possibilities. One of them is to file a claim via https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome (or other claim sites), but if many customers are going to do so, Alpha could go down (or flee to asian nations where they came from) and nobody of us would get any fiat from Alpha. The most safe way is to sell account on ebay, to get ie 70% of what you have payed for your order. Dunno, have to think about next steps. Alpha even could delete the customer account if you start a big shitstorm here on the forums or via claim-websites...

[1714994646]

1714994646

[1714994646]

1714994646

[1714994646]

1714994646

[1714994646]

1714994646

[1714994646]

1714994646

[Gleb Gamow]

It looks like anderl's post struck a nerve. Once again Alpha sends out another non employee to express their "personal opinions", rather than Alpha posting themselves .

Politics & Society / Re: Cryptocurrency Tax Blog

« Last post by mjakram on Today at 12:31:20 PM »
Hey Guys

I know it has been a while since I have updated this blog, however I will be getting back to it sometime in August covering more areas of taxation which I have I have been researching on. I have been extremely busy with work with a couple of Client Company filing deadlines coming up at the end of July 2014.

A quick message. I have been receiving several messages on Facebook, and LinkedIn from customers and other individuals interested (more so over the last couple of day's) referring me personally in forums and on this blog asking for answers on certain issues.

I will answer the types of questions/accusations which have been put out about me which have been put out and answer them here (this is not representative of anything official from Alpha Technology and is my personal views and thoughts):

Q's) Why haven't we gotten an update in so long? What has happened, why aren't you updating us? Did something go wrong? Etc.

A) Firstly, I'd like to clarify as I stated in the blog above. I am not involved in or responsible for ANY of the operational side of Alpha Technology, therefore my guess to the answers to these questions was as good as yours.

I was previously employed on a part time basis (working on evenings and weekends), as accounts manager to help out with bookkeeping, liaising with external accountants and payroll.

I can confirm that I am currently not employed by Alpha Technology and neither am I receiving any type of remuneration or wages from the company. I am currently only carrying out payroll duties one day a month and liaising between Alpha Technology's Accountant’s and Alpha Technology, a couple of hours a quarter.

Back to the question above, I have spoken to an Alpha Technology employee with the questions raised to me, and he assured me that nothing has gone wrong, there is a short delay for various reasons (did not go into specifics), and a big update is soon to come.

I also raised some of the concerns that I have been receiving and my own concerns about this. However, I was assured that everything is going well and they are waiting on information from external parties before releasing an update.

Q) Your blog means your terms are illegal and you’re not complying with distance selling regulations (DSR)? Please explain? Did you use solicitors or did you make them up yourself? Did you use a solicitor from moss side?

A) I am an accountant and not a lawyer. I am not qualified to give legal advice and neither do alpha technology use me as legal adviser. The last time I checked, all of Alpha Technology’s legal situations were being dealt with a pretty well re-known international law firm which is not based in Moss Side (not that there is anything wrong with solicitors based in Moss Side, I am sure they are very competent) and I do know that quite large sums of money have been paid to this law firm (as I have seen invoices because used to do the book-keeping), in order to ensure everything is legally up to scratch. So I am guessing that all rules and regulations are being complied with, and I would be surprised and extremely concerned if they were intentionally not being complied with.

On another note, my blog is a “Tax Blog” and not a DSR or a Legal Blog, and as a professional I cannot and will not advice on any area that I am not qualified to do so in. However, I would like to make the following point; the issue of whether or not people are businesses is a much wider concept than that of trading. So just because the badges of trade fail from a tax perspective, doesn’t mean that they are not in business from a legal perspective. A very simple example is an investment company that buys securities and just takes income, is a business. So, people referring to the HMRC link in my blog, or using my blog to justify a complex legal concept and applying it to a situation, are wrong in doing so and completely out of their depth. Please, obtain advice from legal professionals who are qualified in this area of law and use their advice as a source and not some self-proclaimed “expert” on a forum.

I am no expert in this area, however, if this situation was as simple and straightforward as some of these self-proclaimed “experts” are suggesting in certain forums, which I have just had a skim read through, and for arguments sake Alpha Technology’s solicitors who are actually experts in this area were wrong or Alpha Technology misunderstood the advice, I am sure Trading Standards or any other regulatory body in charge of this would have forced Alpha Technology to change their terms to comply by now. I mean it has been 7 months or so since these terms went up. (Again, I am no expert and neither do I speak on behalf of Alpha Technology… Just my thoughts)

Q's/Accusations) Have you scammers, ran off to India? You terrorists, you are funding Al-Qaeda? I bet your driving around in a Ferrari right now, you criminal fraudsters /bas***/crooks. Etc.

A) I personally am disgusted at some of these accusations, racist comments, and childish internet bully-like behaviour. Albeit, the majority of the abuse is coming from people who are not customers, and want to sprout their hateful comments for reasons they only know.

On a personal note. When I was a part time employee/director of Alpha Technology I put in a lot of time and sacrificed a lot of my personal time, which I could have been spending with my family and friends, in carrying out accounting related duties for Alpha Technology. I asked to be paid a minimalist salary and was paid a salary which equated to less than UK minimum wage (I was only paid for 3 months work). Before that and after that any work I have been carrying out has been free of charge to Alpha Technology and at my own expense. Before Pre orders were taken, I loaned Alpha Technology several thousand pounds of my own personal money to help get the company started. As it stands, I have given Alpha Technology several thousand pounds more of my own money than I have received back to date from the company in any form.

The same can be said for the other employees of Alpha Technology. I do carry out payroll duties and I do know that they are getting paid very modest salaries equating to around the UK minimum wage mark. I also know for a fact that to date my brother (CEO of Alpha Technology) has also borrowed money from several family members and loaned the money to Alpha Technology and to date he has put in more money in the form of loans than he has been paid out in any form.

My father (the final Akram whose name is mentioned in Alpha Technology). Has to date received ZERO remuneration or salary or any form of monies from Alpha Technology and loaned my brother (CEO of Alpha Technology) several thousand pounds of his own money, which was then put into Alpha Technology.

It may surprise some of you but as it stands, these "scammers", "crooks" and what not are currently several thousand pounds less well-off now than they were Pre the existence of Alpha Technology, due to the savings that they have loaned to the company in helping start-up the business.

Anyhow, I and my father would be grateful if you did not contact us with your abuse, especially considering the as we currently have no operational duties or responsibilities with Alpha Technology, neither are we employees of Alpha Technology and when /if we are contracted by Alpha Technology to carry out any duties we carry them out free of charge and at our own expense.

I would also like to clarify that we are Accountants and currently run a business which takes up pretty much all of our working time, and we have never been and never were to be involved in any of Alpha Technology’s operations. Our intention was simply to provide basic accounting help and advice to help start up the company, until it came to a point that Alpha Technology were in a position to pass on these duties completely onto an external firm of accountants, which they have done so to an accounting firm which is currently ranked in the top 100 accounting firms in the UK . I am pretty comfortable knowing they are in good hands.

I, and my father currently have little to no involvement or knowledge of the operations of the business. That is not to say that we do not have an interest in the business, we rightly do so as so much of our personal money is in Alpha Technology, and we could potentially lose it all in the unlikely situation if things were to go wrong.

And just to clarify and to summarise, NO we are not driving around in Ferraris or going on exotic holidays or funding any terrorist organisation with yours or our money . YOUR money is being used to develop and manufacture YOUR product.


Concluding Comments

I am aware that the vast majority of the customers have been extremely courteous and patient. I also know that this business, especially considering it is a “pre-order” model would not have been a successful venture without those people who took a risk. I would personally like to thank every single customer for that.

Please also note, that the majority of the people who seem to be abusing and hating are NOT customers, and I have no interest in pleasing them or addressing them because I know, that no matter what I, or Alpha Technology, or anyone who is involved with Alpha Technology says or does, these people will just continue picking dirt and hating (whether what they say with so much conviction is correct or not is a completely different matter).

From what I have been told, I believe Alpha Technology is still ahead of many of the competitor companies they were originally being put up against as competition originally, in terms of where they are and I believe Alpha Technology has been more transparent than many of these other companies. I believe from what I have been told, that Alpha Technology is nearing the end of the project and a working prototype will be demonstrated very soon.

And again to clarify, none of what I have said here represents Alpha Technology or their views. I am purely stating my personal opinion as someone who also has put a lot of money in Alpha Technology, and is patiently waiting for the successful completion of this project to see my money back.

I see he and his father are trying to distance themselves from Alpha. This is not a good sign. I find it interesting that after claiming to have invested thousands of pounds into Alpha, an "employee" wouldn't tell him, or he didn't care to know what the delays were.
I Also see he still has not disclosed this "international firm of solicitors" (just got an upgrade from a "leading UK firm") Presumably the same firm that wrote this typo ridden garbage:

"For clients whom have ordered before the 1st of July 2014, the terms at the time of your order are still in effect and will remain in being in effect. We will link them from within this document soon, so you may review them in the event you did not store a copy for your own use.

Shipping

We hope shipping will start in the second or third quarter of 2014.
Shipping will commence as soon as possible after your payment has been received. We do our best to get the hardware to you within the shortest amount of time possible. Due to the very high volume of orders we experience and limited hardware availability, we may encounter delays. Non the less, we will do our utmost best to ensure you will always receive your product within 90 days."

If their comprehension of the law is as good as their grasp of time, spelling and grammar I can see why they got it so wrong.

I think the post above is correct. The accountants in the family who played a role in this should be reported to the CPAA. They are clearly trying to distance themselves from this mess so they at least survive with their careers in tact. But as employees of this enterprise, former or otherwise they should be held accountable. Let the CPAA decide if their part in this debacle deserves sanction or not.

Non-employee my ass!

http://www.coindesk.com/asic-miners-litecoin-soon/

Mohammed Akram, CEO of Alpha Technology, spoke about the development process and why his company has decided to throw its weight behind litecoin.

...

Alpha Technology is a “family-involved business” including accountants and software experts as well as Akram, an electronic engineer.

Same dude: https://www.facebook.com/mohammed.j.akram.3

[phzi]

https://web.archive.org/web/20140702185646/https://alpha-t.net/about-us/team-2/
vs
https://alpha-t.net/about-us/team-2/

Muhammad Akram (Business Adviser)
and
Mohammed Jafar Akram (Accounts Manager)

Removed from the "Our Team" page.

Don't accept this bullshit - everyone needs to file formal complaints against these two individuals.

Muhammad Akram (Business Adviser)

Muhammad is the father of the founder of Alpha Technology. He currently works as a Business Adviser for Alpha Technology. He provides Alpha Technology with business advice if and when required, the wealth of business experience and knowledge he brings is unparalleled and is a major factor in this projects success.

He was a Regional Financial Accountant at the International Firm IMI Plc. during the late 70s all the way through to the mid-80s, when he eventually decided to focus on his accountancy practice full time. During his time at IMI Plc., he earned a high level of respect and prestige from senior management due to his hard work, integrity, technical expertise and innovation. In the early 80s he led a team at IMI Plc. which created a computerised accounting system that was at the time used nationally.

Since 1986, Muhammad has been running his own accountancy practice M Akram & Co, and dealing with the taxes and accounts of local businesses. He is a qualified Financial Accountant and also a Certified Public Accountant.

Mohammed Jafar Akram (Accounts Manager)

Jafar is a qualified Chartered Certified Accountant and has over 5 years experience working in general accountancy practice. He has extensive experience in dealing with the taxes and accounts of businesses from a wide range of sectors.

Jafar is responsible for ensuring our finance department is running smoothly and liases with external Accountants, Auditors and Tax Advisers on behalf of Alpha Technology in ensuring that all the financial and tax affairs are complete and up to date.

They sure look like culpable employees to me, and this attempt to distance themselves stands as evidence of their fraud.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140124193201/https://alpha-t.net/about-us/team-2/
^ Also, don't forget the original version with their pictures...

Mohammed Mubasher Akram (Managing Director and Operations Manager)


Mohammed Jafar Akram (Finance Director & Accounts Manager)



BTW, Fiaz et al. your stupid forums bans are what drove people here...

[hallo_frosch]

Alpha-T could still claim they have fired the Rest of there Clan because they are incapable to do the Job. 

[phzi]

Alpha-T could still claim they have fired the Rest of there Clan because they are incapable to do the Job.  

You mean the one remaining director (Mohammed Mubasher Akram) fired his brother and father, who are apparently heavily invested in the company themselves?  
Ya?... no...


I love the Team page... it cracks me up:

Fiaz Malik (Customer Manager)

Fiaz manages our day to day administration and customer service department. He has worked in various customer service roles in the past and has a very customer focused approach and is our community manager so he will be very active on forums, twitter etc.

Fiaz is responsible for providing input on how to improve our internal processes in order to enhance the customer experience. He has a very positive attitude to customers and is always proactive in serving them. In addition to his main duties he is also in charge of liaising with press.

Corrected: He has a very negative attitude to customers and is proactive in dismissing and banning them.

[RoadStress]

Hello everyone. I just read in the S3 thread about this venture having issue and I see that there a lot of pages to fill in. Someone please tell me the TL;DR version. Chip specs are good or not? What went wrong?

[phzi]

Hello everyone. I just read in the S3 thread about this venture having issue and I see that there a lot of pages to fill in. Someone please tell me the TL;DR version. Chip specs are good or not? What went wrong?

Nobody knows, and Alpha-T aren't telling anybody anything except "soon".  There hasen't been a real update from Alpha-T in 2 months.  They are also unlawfully denying refunds and giving bogus excuses.  Company directors are being removed from the team page, and the father and brother are now claiming they have no official roll in the company...

If you post a question on their forums that they don't like (even if it's polite and well worded), they ban you permanently (by IP and username, so you can't even read the forums).


It's starting to look, very clearly, like the Akram family is trying to leave Mohammed Mubasher Akram (Alpha-T's Managing Director and Operations Manager) out to hang for this.  Bankruptcy being right around the corner seems like a distinct possibility.

[RoadStress]

Hello everyone. I just read in the S3 thread about this venture having issue and I see that there a lot of pages to fill in. Someone please tell me the TL;DR version. Chip specs are good or not? What went wrong?

Nobody knows, and Alpha-T aren't telling anybody anything except "soon".  There hasen't been a real update from Alpha-T in 2 months.  They are also unlawfully denying refunds and giving bogus excuses.  Company directors are being removed from the team page, and the father and brother are now claiming they have no official roll in the company...

If you post a question on their forums that they don't like (even if it's polite and well worded), they ban you permanently (by IP and username, so you can't even read the forums).


It's starting to look, very clearly, like the Akram family is trying to leave Mohammed Mubasher Akram (Alpha-T's Managing Director and Operations Manager) out to hang for this.  Bankruptcy being right around the corner seems like a distinct possibility.

So another mining operation funded with others people money...

[r-man]

Regarding Lawyers. Why waste your time when you can get every penny back through small claims online for as little as  £70? If you want to try and coordinate a complicated class action across multiple counties over the internet by all means give it a try. But by the time you get to court, Alpha will probably have folded and disappeared with your money. Personally I'd just pay the £70, have a Judge rule on it, and get my money back all from the comfort of my computer desk. But its up to you.

How?

[r-man]

Received the same e mail from them, replied to this and waiting still for an answer or full refund.

Can You please post the email here? It can help others, including me :-)

[r-man]

Thanks2All for advices, here is email I just send them:

Hello Alpha,

1. Well I must say just again, that I'm not a business customer, I'm an individual. Ask MJAkram, your Accounts manager, he understands it , see attached Tax01. You don't even know for what I would use purchased hardware, so the statement "the hardware we are selling can only be used for mining cryptocurrencies which is a business practice according to HMRC" is completely nonsense. What if I use it for science/experimentation purposes?

2. I have no business license, I am a standart consumer and I'm not acting as a business. That's only your fradulent claim. There is NO WHERE in the HMRC does it say that mining cryptocurrencies is only a business activity. HMRC do not classify mining as a business activity, it can be done as an individual and profits treated as a Capital Gain not income. See this:
HMRC identified that all generation of profits from cryptocurrency transactions are taxable as corporate OR personal income tax.  There was not specification that the income generated was specifically corporate tax.  I hope this puts this B#$@#HIT that Fiaz is spouting to rest.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/briefs/vat/brief0914.htm

Corporation Tax, Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax treatment of Bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies
As with any other activity, whether the treatment of income received from, and charges made in connection with, activities involving Bitcoin and other similar cryptocurrencies will be subject to Corporation Tax, Income Tax OR Capital Gains Tax depends on the activities and the parties involved.

Whether any profit or gain is chargeable or any loss is allowable will be looked at on a case-by-case basis taking into account the specific facts. Each case will be considered on the basis of its own individual facts and circumstances. The relevant legislation and case law will be applied to determine the correct tax treatment. Therefore, depending on the facts, a transaction may be so highly speculative that it is not taxable or any losses relievable.. For example gambling or betting wins are not taxable and gambling losses cannot be offset against other taxable profits.
For businesses which accept payment for goods or services in Bitcoin there is no change to when revenue is recognised or how taxable profits are calculated.
Corporation Tax: The profits or losses on exchange movements between currencies are taxable. For the tax treatment of virtual currencies, the general rules on foreign exchange and loan relationships apply. We have not at this stage identified any need to consider bespoke rules.

For companies, exchange movements are determined between the company’s functional currency (usually the currency in which the accounts are prepared) and the other currency in question. If there is an exchange rate between Bitcoin and the functional currency then this analysis applies. Therefore no special tax rules for Bitcoin transactions are required. The profits and losses of a company entering into transactions involving Bitcoin would be reflected in accounts and taxable under normal Corporation Tax rules.

Income Tax: The profits and losses of a non-incorporated business on Bitcoin transactions must be reflected in their accounts and will be taxable on normal income tax rules.

Chargeable gains - Corporation Tax and Capital Gains Tax: If a profit or loss on a currency contract is not within trading profits or otherwise within the loan relationship rules, it would normally be taxable as a chargeable gain or allowable as a loss for Corporation Tax or Capital Gains Tax purposes. Gains and losses incurred on Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies are chargeable or allowable for Capital Gains Tax if they accrue to an individual OR, for Corporation Tax on chargeable gains if they accrue to a company.


3. About the terms - what terms did you fulfiled? The one about updates every week? With video and/or pictures? Or the one about project completion on 15.7.2014 (See the roadmap attachment.)? If you are going to consider your news items as contractual terms, then what about the other terms you are violating??? See the roadmap attachment.

4. There has been UK Citizens Advice Bureau contacted and they clearly explain this about distance orders:
Your rights and obligations
When you enter into a contract with a trader by means of a distance communication (telephone, internet, mail order etc.) you will often have cancellation rights under what is known as the Distance Selling Regulations. These state you are entitled to a written notice confirming the details of your order and the fact you have cancellation rights. If you have been given the notice at the time you place the order, your cancellation rights run from the time of order until  7 working days starting from the day after  you receive the goods. If you have not been provided with this written information, your cancellation rights are extended for up to 3 months and 7 working days. The trader must provide this refund within thirty days.

So as is written in my first email, I did everything according to law and now you have 30 days starting from 21.07.2014 to do a full refund to me.

Kind regards
...............

[phzi]

Regarding Lawyers. Why waste your time when you can get every penny back through small claims online for as little as  £70? If you want to try and coordinate a complicated class action across multiple counties over the internet by all means give it a try. But by the time you get to court, Alpha will probably have folded and disappeared with your money. Personally I'd just pay the £70, have a Judge rule on it, and get my money back all from the comfort of my computer desk. But its up to you.

How?

Try reading at least a few pages of the forums thread your in?

Pretty much everything you need to know is in these three posts.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=314402.msg7931395#msg7931395

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=314402.msg7290648#msg7290648

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=314402.msg7293210#msg7293210

What anderl said is correct and has been pointed out before. HMRC do not classify mining as a business activity it can be done as an individual and profits treated as a Capital Gain not income. Their claim is an outright lie and an idiot could tell their T&Cs were "typed up" by a clown

Regarding Lawyers. Why waste your time when you can get every penny back through small claims online for as little as  £70? If you want to try and coordinate a complicated class action across multiple counties over the internet by all means give it a try. But by the time you get to court, Alpha will probably have folded and disappeared with your money. Personally I'd just pay the £70, have a Judge rule on it, and get my money back all from the comfort of my computer desk. But its up to you.

[vesperwillow]

Well we're officially 7 days past their original "worst case shipping date", with not even a peep from them. Product development appears to have stopped, with the last known update of their needing to revise the boards. They never mentioned finalizing case design. They threw out the LCD, wifi and built-in controller. Then supposedly brought back the LCD, but then threw it out again. Since then, they claimed to be almost through tapeout and about ready to receive chips (end of May, estimate), and that they'd be having a big update soon!

Then it was, there are some delays which we can't disclose.. but a big update soon!

..There are delays.. but a big, big, HUGE update way soon!

Credit card processing is up!... hours later, Credit card processing has been revoked!

..Delays.. we know we haven't provided an update in (2+ months), but we have some absolutely record-breaking news coming soon!

..yep, just trust us, it's coming! Ignore the fact our phone line has been disconnected, half the staff has been fired, and we've been removing all digital presence from the whole internet!

...yeah. That's about what's been going on.

[phzi]

Has anyone had the opportunity to look at Alpha-T's statement of capital document from 2014.07.14?

I'm waiting for a copy to be e-mailed to me, with any luck it'll be in the next hour.  This might be very telling (or, typical of alpha, it might say nothing).

[brian_23452]

What I can't understand is why those of you who got ripped off are still playing games with this company?  It is fairly obvious to anyone not emotionally invested in the outcome, that none of you will get the product you paid for, nor will AT ever willingly return your money.  So why all the posturing and back-and-forth?  File a claim, contact a lawyer, get your money back.  Or not, I guess.  But giving them deadlines and such isn't really all that productive as all it does is give them more time to move the money around, and also makes your position clear (i.e., not really willing to take legal action).

The process itself isn't that difficult.  You send them a certified letter (or whatever it is called in your country, a letter requiring a signature to receive) stating what you ordered, what you paid, your wish to cancel your order and receive a full refund of whatever amount you paid and a deadline to receive the money, something like 7-14 days in the future.  There is no need to give reasons or explanations why, as it isn't their concern (besides, they already know why), nor explain that you aren't a business (they already know that too) or anything like that.  The whole thing should be like 5 lines long, if that.  That's it, done.  Then when they don't pay you, file against them.  

If that isn't something you are comfortable with then hire an attorney, but really the whole thing can be done by yourself.  You're not going to wake up tomorrow and have a meaningful update from AT sitting in your inbox, everyone knows that, so why wait?

[phzi]

What I can't understand is why those of you who got ripped off are still playing games with this company?  It is fairly obvious to anyone not emotionally invested in the outcome, that none of you will get the product you paid for, nor will AT ever willingly return your money.  So why all the posturing and back-and-forth?  File a claim, contact a lawyer, get your money back.  Or not, I guess.  But giving them deadlines and such isn't really all that productive as all it does is give them more time to move the money around, and also makes your position clear (i.e., not really willing to take legal action).

The process itself isn't that difficult.  You send them a certified letter (or whatever it is called in your country, a letter requiring a signature to receive) stating what you ordered, what you paid, your wish to cancel your order and receive a full refund of whatever amount you paid and a deadline to receive the money, something like 7-14 days in the future.  There is no need to give reasons or explanations why, as it isn't their concern (besides, they already know why), nor explain that you aren't a business (they already know that too) or anything like that.  The whole thing should be like 5 lines long, if that.  That's it, done.  Then when they don't pay you, file against them.  

If that isn't something you are comfortable with then hire an attorney, but really the whole thing can be done by yourself.  You're not going to wake up tomorrow and have a meaningful update from AT sitting in your inbox, everyone knows that, so why wait?

Courts seriously frown upon cases where the claimant has made no attempt to negotiate with the defendant themselves.

I've seen a case thrown out of court simply because the defendant said that they had posed a legitimate response to the claimant's request, and received no response, and the claimant couldn't deny it.  If you do what you suggest, and Alpha-T responds with legitimate questions (whether you deem them legitimate or not), then you won't have a leg to stand on in court under any competent judge.

It's perfectly reasonable, and I'd argue that it is the responsible approach to try to settle things with Alpha-T yourself before taking it before the law.


That said, it's about time everyone brings this before the law, and I generally agree with your sentiments.

I think at this point it's more about understanding for many people.  The money, meh... Me, I want to know what happened or is happening at Alpha.

[Phorna]

I love the Team page... it cracks me up:

Well if we skip the contractors and PR employee only Mohammed Mubasher Akram left. 

[phzi]

I love the Team page... it cracks me up:

Well if we skip the contractors and PR employee only Mohammed Mubasher Akram left. 

And here's their latest Statement Of Capital:

Class of shares: ORDINARY
Currency: GBP
Number allotted: 100
Aggregate nominal value: 100 (GBP)
Amount paid per share: 1 (GBP)

Shareholder 1: 90 ORDINARY shares held by MOHAMMED MUBASHER AKRAM
Shareholder 2: 10 ORDINARY shares held by Andrew Laurus


Okay, wtf... Andrew Laurus?  That guys was involved with Avalon, no?

[s1gs3gv]

Okay, wtf... Andrew Laurus?  That guys was involved with Avalon, no?

Lots of interesting google hits on Andrew Laurus ...

[anderl]

Ok digging into this deeper I found how Alpha Technologies assumed that miners are businesses.  They don't have a legal attorney.  They themselves imposed the ruling and all based on what they think the future regulations minght be because of some interpretation they made from the US IRS rules  https://forum.alpha-t.net/index.php?topic=503.0

I read the publication of this 'accountants guidance' a little differently than you do Anderl, perhaps its just my suspicious nature. This sounds awfully like  'If you cause problems for us with the authorities we will cause problems for you'  … combined with the implicit carrot 'We can help you with these problems … as a geeky tax guy I understand bitcoin regulations and there may be ways to mitigate your large liabilities'

 …. carrot and stick IIRC

On the other hand it could just be well intended thoughtful generous free advice.

Yes I can see that re-reading it.  So they may have an attorney that they have put on retainer and did a preliminary investigation on cryptocurrencies.  However I've never seen the attorney's law firm posted.  Alpha _technologies always call them a top legal law firm or international law firm.  So who is it that was so expert in determining that only businesses min cryptocurrency even though the precedence over the last 4 years has been that it has been a hobbyist pastime and there was never a requirement or regulation that stated you need to be incorporated to mine cryptos on a CPU or GPU.  

It's like saying that you need to be a business to fix your car even though millions of people do it all over the country.  Yes there are businesses specialized in auto repair but there is no legal requirement for.  And HMRC has NEVER come out and stated that it is illegal for individuals to mine cryptocurrencies, or stated that you must be incorporated to mine cryptocurrencies.  

If they are so confident that only businesses can mine cryptocurrency then why hasn't their lawyer publicly come out and said so.  Why doesn't ALpha Technology publically publish the position paper or draft that they paid thousands of dollars to a lawyer for that proves that they are right beyond a shadow of a doubt.  So far they haven't and I don't believe they will because I believe they do not have it.

I've read the HMRC and I see several statements that identify that individuals as well as business can conduct cryptocurrency activities which include mining.  If Alpha Technology says otherwise the onerous is on them to prove otherwise.  Because they are depending on that legal position because it prevents them from having to follow consumer protection laws.  

And that is the critical point here.  The ethics of the law is to protect individuals from businesses that can strong arm them, take their money, withhold it, sell them shoddy products or fail to deliver.  Businesses will draft lengthy agreements with each other and will have  lawyers on both sides draft those agreements so that both parts knows when they are in breach of the contract.  Individuals typically do not have the capital to higher a team of lawyers to help negotiate an agreement.  That is why there are consumer protection laws.

Alpha Technology never asked if you were a business, never asked for a business identification number, was willing to accept personal as well and corporate debt and credit cards to purchase miners.  If any investigation is don't on the Alpha Technology customer database I doubt you will find even half of the purchases have a business name.  Most have used personal names and not business names.  Most of the miners are going to residential addresses.  I have dealt with wholesalers and B2B corporations and there are forms that you have to fill out that go above and beyond just putting your name address and purchase information on.

To make my point here is a distributor I worked with.  They only work wholesale with businesses.  This is 1 of 2 pages they required me to fill out in order to establish a business to business relationship.
Notice what they are asking for on the form.  Notice how it takes 1 to 2 business days to confirm.  Notice how I had to attach a resale tax certificate/business license/company document in order to prove I was a business.  Notice how they ask me about my anticipated monthly purchases.  How they ask for a list of authorized buyers from my company.  Notice that I have to CERTIFY that I to business in a local (State/Province/Region).

Now ask yourself.  Did Alpha technology ever ask you for even a small portion of what this business asked for?

That is why I believe that the spirit of the law is on the side of the Alpha Technology customers as individuals and that Alpha Technology only identifies customers as businesses so they can bypass consumer protection laws.