I don't usually like to get involved in personal drama like this, and I know stuff related to the Bruce situation is being directed to Off-Topic, but the disgusting Mybitcoin scandal is most definitely on-topic, and it is looking increasingly likely that we have found at least one of the person(s) responsible. Here's why:
The First Clue
http://mortgagefraudblog.com/perp-walk/item/10674-illinois_foreclosure_rescue_company_fined_and_shut_down
Bold Funding, Inc. and its owner-operator, Bruce Wagner, were found to have violated Illinois law by falsely promising to secure private funding for loans to save the homes of persons who were in foreclosure for a fee ranging from $300 to $6,670.
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In Civil Court on April 18, 2006, Judge Julia Nowicki ordered Bold Funding and Bruce Wagner to refund $115,858 in application fees to 74 former customers who never received any funding from the Defendants. Bold Funding and Bruce Wagner were also fined $250,000, and the Defendants were permanently banned from providing any services in Illinois related to residential mortgage loans.
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probably the largest, most sophisticated foreclosure scam I've ever heard about, before or since then. $116,000 or so in refunds doesn't begin to compensate all of the victims. And now the owner, it seems, fled to another state and is trying to start his own talk show!
Somebody called Bruce Wagner is a fraudster, responsible for - at least - a huge foreclosure scam. On its own, this proves nothing and could well be a coincidence, but is the first step in our lengthy trail of evidence.
Edit 2: Not only was Bruce involved in the original Ohio fraud lawsuit regarding the aforementioned foreclosure scam, but he's also in default of a $514,400 lawsuit in New York regarding assault and fraud - there is no record of him ever having paid up.The ConnectionEdit: Bruce Wagner has since confessed to being the same Bruce Wagner as owned Bold Funding, but here's how he was caught:Whois data from the domain of scam company "Bold Funding." Note the address: 9 E Huron St., Chicago
Next, an online business card from that same physical address. Note the domain name: brucewagner.com
http://www.imarketlive.com/USA/biz/bruce-wagner-omnimedia-inc-MTE2NDIwNDU.htmlhttps://www.nanaimogold.com/images/bruce_omni.PNGFinally, the LinkedIn profile of the Bitcoin Show presenter Bruce Wagner, the Bruce Wagner we're interested in.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/brucewagnerhttps://www.nanaimogold.com/images/bruce_linkedin.PNGHe owns the same domain name and company name as the fraudster. There's our connection - both Bruce Wagners are the same. The host of the Bitcoin Show is a convicted fraudster. This is the most visually striking chain of evidence, but other links, such as a correlating date of birth from criminal records, are in the process of being uncovered.
The ShillSo far, we've only proved that Wagner's a dodgy character - however, he could have reformed, and even if he hasn't we've nothing to prove he was anything other than a high-profile victim of a Bitcoin scandal. And we still wouldn't - were it not for the fact that one of Bruce's shills was a little unimaginative in his choice of pseudonym. Here's some of his posts, claiming to be a satisfied customer of Bruce's old company, Bold Funding:
https://i.imgur.com/E9Y9B.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/RNOvx.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/RNOvx.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/vMwDa.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/I4l7I.pngTod Williams. Doesn't that name sound familiar? It will to victims of the MyBitcoin fiasco - To
m Williams was the man at the helm of MyBitcoin when it went down with half of its clients' money, including, allegedly, 25,000BTC of cash belonging to it's biggest advocate -Bruce Wagner.
From this, we've established two key facts: the first being that Bruce Wagner is a convicted con artist and the second that one of his shills called himself Tod Willlams. In isolation, neither of these conclusively link him to the scam But together, along with our knowledge about Bruce's activities before the collapse, they leave us with very little doubt of what the score is. The specifics aren't exactly clear, but it looks as if Tom/Tod Williams was a shill for Bruce's original foreclosure scam, and when he came to run one of his own - MyBitcoin - Bruce returned the favour using his popular and trusted Bitcoin show. But that might not be all...
Accomplice or Mastermind?Followers of Bruce's online posting may have noticed he has a distinctive typing style, one which, amongst other things, makes heavy...use...of...ellipses. Though it's pure speculation, these followers have noted a distinct similarity between the style of Bruce Wagner and Tod Williams, the shill in his earlier foreclosure scam. This has led them to believe - again though, I stress that this is purely educated guesswork - that Tod Williams was in fact a pseudonym for Bruce himself, and that Tom Williams, by implication, was a reuse of this same pseudonym, slightly altered. It would certainly be foolish of him to be so careless in leaving connections to his previous life in this manner but, as we've seen, it wouldn't be the first time he's made a mistake like this. This would imply that Bruce wasn't just an accomplice in someone else's scam, but the mastermind behind the whole operation.
The FactsWe know that Bruce Wagner defrauded hundreds of thousands of dollars out of innocent homeowners. We know that he was an avid supporter of MyBitcoin, and claimed to have entrusted, and subsequently lost, huge amounts of money with the company. We're fairly sure he was in fact somehow involved, and may have even been in charge of, the whole operation, which is looking likely to be a fraud.
However, one thing's for sure: Bruce Wagner's got a lot of explaining to do.
