CEO OF BITCOIN EXCHANGE ARRESTED

[TheButterZone]

The "suspicious" in "Failure to report suspicious activity" is now defined as "using any currency whatsoever", so now everyone is a criminal. YAY! Boot\Face.

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[windjc]

He should step down from the foundation ASAP.

This. Gavin, please have the leaders of The Bitcoin Foundation contact him immediately and ask for his resignation. He must resign guilty or not.

[TheButterZone]

The entire Bitcoin Foundation should resign, before they are inevitably charged with "money laundering" and other anti-economic liberty victimless non-crimes, by the totalitarians.

Malicious prosecution of pro-liberty board members, et al. is not at all unprecedented in the U.S. BF are sitting ducks, and the rest us are to a lesser degree.

[cryptoanarchist]

This is all theater to scare people.

Shrem is in the good-ole-boy-secret-handshake-club himself, and the charges are completely ridiculous.

Not following FINCEN "guidelines" is not a crime, as there is no law. Even if there was a law, there is no jurisdiction.

Hopefully, some stupid people will sell and give me some cheap buy prices.

Actually not following FINCEN guidelines is one of the criminal charges against him.

Specifically 'failure to report suspicious activity" which can land you in a federal prison for 5 years.

Since he was arrested in New York, there is plenty of jurisdiction.


~BCX~

Actually, guidelines aren't laws, which is why they're called..."GUIDELINES", which is why there can be no real charges. It's either total bullshit theater to scare people (my guess), or the feds are just doing whatever they want with no respect for even their own laws (also plausible).

Jurisdiction has several elements. Merely being in a geographic area doesn't grant jurisdiction.

[Kluge]

Prosecutor can kindly go burn in Hell. Speechless. This is the most blatant anti-Bitcoin rights violation I've seen yet, way worse than the thug letters sent to Caldwell.

Shrem shouldn't step down from anything over this. The Foundation should be supporting him, not throwing him under the bus because they think they can influence the BTC price a couple points higher. Have some fucking integrity.

[Minor Miner]

Prosecutor can kindly go burn in Hell. Speechless. This is the most blatant anti-Bitcoin rights violation I've seen yet, way worse than the thug letters sent to Caldwell.
Shrem shouldn't step down from anything over this. The Foundation should be supporting him, not throwing him under the bus because they think they can influence the BTC price a couple points higher. Have some fucking integrity.

WHAT?
Did you read the complaint?   
Caldwell did not do anything wrong nor illegal.  How do you compare the two?
Shrem was all over magazines bragging about how rich he was and how much he loves weed and likely (since treasury is involved) NOT paying any taxes.   Then they have emails from him that prove he knew someone was laundering drug money through his company.   More than one law broken here.   And he had the gall to plaster his face everywhere bragging about his wealth -- I fail to see how you think anyone is to blame for this other than shrem.   It is fine to brag and promote yourself but if you are bragging in the papers about how much money you make, you better be paying your taxes.

[cryptoanarchist]

DEPARTMENT OF COMMON LAW AND COMMON SENSE HAS ISSUED NEW GOVERNMENT GUIDELINES


reuters - Today, John White, Director of the DCLCS issued a statement that people who use the taxation of innocent people to fund their livelihoods must register as scumbags to adhere to new regulations. Scumbags who, in addition to using the extorted funds, then use them to attack people and kidnap people, must register as giant fuckwads by shooting themselves in the face.


***there, that's a "guideline"**

[Holliday]

Prosecutor can kindly go burn in Hell. Speechless. This is the most blatant anti-Bitcoin rights violation I've seen yet, way worse than the thug letters sent to Caldwell.

Shrem shouldn't step down from anything over this. The Foundation should be supporting him, not throwing him under the bus because they think they can influence the BTC price a couple points higher. Have some fucking integrity.

Shrem tried to play ball with the powers that be. He was BitInstant's Compliance Officer, in charge of ensuring its (the company's) compliance with anti-money laundering laws. Then he got caught cheating at their game.

Have you read the complaint?

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/January14/SchremFaiellaChargesPR/Faiella,%20Robert%20M.%20and%20Charlie%20Shrem%20Complaint.pdf

If you are going to play ball in the US, don't try to beat them at their own game...

Disclaimer: My personal opinion is that drugs should be decriminalized and money laundering is a fake crime, but my opinion doesn't matter when I'm living in the USA!

[cryptoanarchist]

I suggest read the indictment, Count Four "Willful Failure To Report Suspicious Activity" and its associated code which results in a 5 year prison term. It's an actual crime in violation of a law, not a simple guide line. Charlie was in the USA and is definitely within the jurisdiction of the USA. His other charges equal 20+ years. This guy is going to be busy for the next several decades in club fed.

I suggest your read the indictment located at the bottom of this article.

http://www.businessinsider.com/report-ceo-of-major-bitcoin-exchange-arrested-2014-1#ixzz2rcQNGOtj



~BCX~

I'm not disputing that those are the charges. I'm saying that they are total bullshit and have no legal merit. Them stealing peoples money and calling themselves "prosecutors" doesn't change what's already in writing. They're making it up as they go along.

[escrow.ms]

"knowingly contributing to and facilitating anonymous drug sales"

Isn't that's what everyone running TOR nodes doing too?

[cryptoanarchist]

If The Bitcoin Foundation fails to expunge this guy, it will forever taint the entire coin in the general public's eye. The acceptance of the general public is the only path for Bitcoin to grow beyond what it is today.

 Read the indictment, this guy was clearly funding illegal activity, exactly what Bitcoin doesn't need.


~BCX~

You're clearly one of the aforementioned scumbags. Please kill yourself and welcome to my ignore-land.

[BadBear]

"knowingly contributing to and facilitating anonymous drug sales"

Isn't that's what everyone running TOR nodes doing too?

You should try actually reading the article, your analogy would only be valid if all he did was run the exchange, apparently he did more than that.

[chaolang]

This is bad making people think of bitcoin are bad...

[BitEnthusiast]

I think this is the media spreading FUD about cryptocurrency. What about the $1 TRILLION plus that the Federal Reserve laundered? I don't see that everywhere.

[cryptoanarchist]

I think this is the media spreading FUD about cryptocurrency. What about the $1 TRILLION plus that the Federal Reserve laundered? I don't see that everywhere.

What gets me is you'd think they'd be trying harder.

[tvbcof]

...
Shrem needs to be dumped asap.

Probably best to wait and see who he rats out.  Maybe some other house-cleaning will be in order and it could be taken care of in a batch.

[chaolang]

This looks like a warning from the gorv

[Minor Miner]

...
Shrem needs to be dumped asap.

Probably best to wait and see who he rats out.  Maybe some other house-cleaning will be in order and it could be taken care of in a batch.

Does Shrem need to be dumped by the Bitcoin Foundation or do a lot of respectable bitcoin users/entrepreneurs need to DUMP the foundation (and constantly clarify that the foundation does NOT represent bitcoin)?
I do not think there is just one bad representative for bitcoin in a ranking position at this "foundation".

[cryptoanarchist]

This looks like a warning from the gorv

Fear the gorv!! The gorv will take your bitcoins and throw you in a rape cage!

[Kluge]

Prosecutor can kindly go burn in Hell. Speechless. This is the most blatant anti-Bitcoin rights violation I've seen yet, way worse than the thug letters sent to Caldwell.
Shrem shouldn't step down from anything over this. The Foundation should be supporting him, not throwing him under the bus because they think they can influence the BTC price a couple points higher. Have some fucking integrity.

WHAT?
Did you read the complaint?   
Caldwell did not do anything wrong nor illegal.  How do you compare the two?
Shrem was all over magazines bragging about how rich he was and how much he loves weed and likely (since treasury is involved) NOT paying any taxes.   Then they have emails from him that prove he knew someone was laundering drug money through his company.   More than one law broken here.   And he had the gall to plaster his face everywhere bragging about his wealth -- I fail to see how you think anyone is to blame for this other than shrem.   It is fine to brag and promote yourself but if you are bragging in the papers about how much money you make, you better be paying your taxes.

Sorry to bring up Mike -- that was the last federal government load of crap which got a sudden pissed off reaction from me when I learned about it, so I immediately connected the two, emotionally.

With regards to natural law, Shrem's committed exactly zero crimes. I'm very irritated that he may be facing years in federal prison over this. I'm pissed off when the first responses I read (after already being pissed off from reading the news) is that Shrem should resign for peoples' personal gain, because they think Bitcoin's going to be "tainted" by someone disregarding immoral laws when he's been making statements like this for so long. The insincere Winklevoss statement is probably the worst, like spitting on his face. (ETA: Had the stomach to actually read their statement, and it's nothing like the sensational condemnation in the press.) The questions over whether or not they did any background checks is totally valid... it's not like anyone who's read one damn sentence spoken by the guy thought Shrem was a freakin' Boy Scout and part-time pastor.

As I was taught in my law classes, all LEOs in the US are bureaucrats, with the ability and duty to actively interpret laws and determine whether or not certain crimes are worth enforcing, which is why any sane police officer isn't going to drive around fining/arresting jay-walkers, pot-smokers, and people with broken-down cars.

It's just a game, I guess. I guess this is my Super Bowl and the whatever-the-fucks just lost, so they're going to prison. Tough luck, bros - good luck with keeping your asshole covered.

ETA: Calm, now. Gets under my skin... I've had >$2m equiv scammed or stolen from me in the past few years, and I know others who've lost a lot more. I don't absolve myself of blame there, but I'm quite poor and burdened because of it. A good chunk of the relatively low income I make goes right to my "involuntary lenders." I've talked to police and I've filed federal complaints, but I don't see a penny in restitution. The LEOs don't even talk back to me. Charlie goes out and buys freakin' weed brownies and helps a pothead launder money, and all the sudden, $millions in net annual productivity goes to prison because someone may've been scamming the government out of a few hundred $k.