Former Monero Maintainer ‘Fluffypony’ Arrested and to Be Extradited

[dubst4r]

Riccardo Spagni, the former maintainer of privacy coin monero, was arrested in Nashville, Tenn. on July 20 and will be extradited to South Africa to face fraud charges for crimes unrelated to crypto.

Spagni, known online as “Fluffypony,” is accused of stealing approximately $100,000 from his former employer, Cape Cookies, by generating false invoices from fictional entities and routing payment to his personal bank accounts between 2009-2011.

Spagni was previously charged with fraud and related charges in a regional court in Cape Town, but pleaded not guilty and failed to appear in court. According to court documents, South African authorities could not find Spagni at his home address in South Africa. After speaking with Spagni’s friends and family they learned Spagni had fled South Africa.

Here is his profile on here - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=94840

Full article - https://www.coindesk.com/former-monero-maintainer-fluffypony-to-be-extradited-for-non-crypto-crimes

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[Yogee]

Arrested for contempt of court hehe. Doesn't he have a legal representative to arrange everything and make sure he's aware of the trial dates? I know this shouldn't affect Monero and crypto but I don't expect fudders to keep quiet about this. I won't be surprised to read "crypto for criminals" all over again.

...Here is his profile on here - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=94840

Active a few days prior to his arrest.

[NotATether]

It's unfortunate.

Now critics are going to pass Monero along even more as some kind of money-laundering cryptocurrency and without using their heads, extrapolate this idea to the rest of the cryptos and bitcoin.

Makes me wonder why people give so much media attention to anonymous figurehead devs in the first place.

[dubst4r]

Arrested for contempt of court hehe. Doesn't he have a legal representative to arrange everything and make sure he's aware of the trial dates? I know this shouldn't affect Monero and crypto but I don't expect fudders to keep quiet about this. I won't be surprised to read "crypto for criminals" all over again.

...Here is his profile on here - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=94840

Active a few days prior to his arrest.

He is being held without bail by the US Marshals, he won't be getting a slap on the wrist for this one, he has been on the run since 2011 when he missed his court date, you think they will just let him off again and "hope" he shows up to future court dates? yeah right

[dubst4r]

During a fairly long time span and was detected recently, 2009-2011 was the beginning and end of transactions leading to his account. So he is now missing and his whereabouts are unknown? Am I too late to hear this news, Not that this has been discussed before? Where many speculations say that a Spagni never really disappeared. But deliberately protected by the African side and secured somewhere in order to avoid his lawsuit. I've forgotten where the topic was discussed and no longer find it in search engines.

He was arrested in Nashville, USA, he fled South Africa and his family ratted him out letting authorities know he is hiding in America

[Silberman]

It's unfortunate.

Now critics are going to pass Monero along even more as some kind of money-laundering cryptocurrency and without using their heads, extrapolate this idea to the rest of the cryptos and bitcoin.

Makes me wonder why people give so much media attention to anonymous figurehead devs in the first place.

This happens because people are lazy and do not want to think by themselves, also it seems that people along the way have lost ability to recognize that a person can do something bad but that doesn't mean that every single other thing that he did was bad as well, this is why character assassination is so effective, the only thing that you need to do is to prove that someone at some point did something bad during their lives and somehow everything that they did was bad as well, even if this developer is arrested and convicted for those crimes that has nothing to do with what he did with monero but most people will be unable to understand this.

[Sterbens]

It's unfortunate.

Now critics are going to pass Monero along even more as some kind of money-laundering cryptocurrency and without using their heads, extrapolate this idea to the rest of the cryptos and bitcoin.

Makes me wonder why people give so much media attention to anonymous figurehead devs in the first place.

Wow, it's time for the politicians to step in and control what they really wanted to control all along.
All entered the black market with biased transactions. Thus it is easier to detect things the government suspects.

[Leviathan.007]

Saw this on the news yesterday. Some of my friends who own Monero called me and they were scared of seeing such news and worry about any incoming sharp price fall but we should pay attention to the word "former". That's really unfortunate but this will affect the market and the price. However, I feel sorry for him, doesn't matter about the regulation stuff but he did a great job as a dev by his contribution to monero project where can feel more privacy with untraceable transactions, I recpet him and I take my hat off to him.

[Welsh]

However, I feel sorry for him, doesn't matter about the regulation stuff but he did a great job as a dev by his contribution to monero project where can feel more privacy with untraceable transactions, I recpet him and I take my hat off to him.

if he's guilty, he's committed fraud intentionally, and ran from the authorities. If the recent claim is accurate too, then he was stealing from his former employer, which is not something I'd advocate for or feel sorry for if its his own doing. I don't think it was stealing out of desperation either, i.e trying to put food on the table, instead it sounds like it could of potentially been through greed. However, that's assuming he is indeed guilty of course.

[n0ne]

He might've earned good out of the monero. Why he had the mind to steal from his former employer. He shouldn't have done it. He is just a maintainer, but this will be interpreted as monero is a scam. This is how FUD over something is easily tied up and circulated all around.

We don't know whether he had done it or it is just a way to shatter the market for a while and recover. With cryptocurrency nothing can be believed, as everyone intend to make money through some means of opportunity.

[20kevin20]

It's unfortunate.

Now critics are going to pass Monero along even more as some kind of money-laundering cryptocurrency and without using their heads, extrapolate this idea to the rest of the cryptos and bitcoin.

Makes me wonder why people give so much media attention to anonymous figurehead devs in the first place.

There are so many people who can be charged for something in the entire world, yet that doesn't mean shit. Imagine taking down Apple's reputation to the floor because 40% of their employees were found to be thieves. What sense does that make?

The media attention is given because it's in the best interest of authorities to promote Monero as the criminal's preferred currency. Besides this, there's absolutely no other reason to push these kind of news, lol. Expect massive FUD to come in the following days/weeks due to this, it's what the states like most.

[Darker45]

He might've earned good out of the monero. Why he had the mind to steal from his former employer. He shouldn't have done it. He is just a maintainer, but this will be interpreted as monero is a scam. This is how FUD over something is easily tied up and circulated all around.

We don't know whether he had done it or it is just a way to shatter the market for a while and recover. With cryptocurrency nothing can be believed, as everyone intend to make money through some means of opportunity.

This is not about Monero. This has nothing to do with Monero. Neither is it about cryptocurrency. That Fluffypony is part of the Monero team is merely incidental. This is about a case that happened years before Monero was even conceived. So whether the man earned a lot out of Monero or not is immaterial to the case.

This is a case of stealing. It's just unfortunate that Fluffypony wasn't able to resolve this decade-old case. Perhaps he simply failed to give enough attention to it, or there might have been intention on his part to just leave it to die. Well, we're awaiting more details.  

Meanwhile, one of BSV's attack dogs has joined the fray, exploited the opportunity, making things more muddled.

[Ozero]

Saw this on the news yesterday. Some of my friends who own Monero called me and they were scared of seeing such news and worry about any incoming sharp price fall but we should pay attention to the word "former". That's really unfortunate but this will affect the market and the price. However, I feel sorry for him, doesn't matter about the regulation stuff but he did a great job as a dev by his contribution to monero project where can feel more privacy with untraceable transactions, I recpet him and I take my hat off to him.

The arrest of Riccardo Spagni should not affect the popularity and price of the Monero coin, since the fraud he committed is not related to the cryptocurrency, especially since at this time he is no longer the developer of this coin.
Of course, the fraud he committed is fairly easy to prove if the police immediately secured evidence of it.
Monero may soon lose its position due to tighter regulation of the circulation of cryptocurrencies with a high level of anonymity from the regulatory authorities. Therefore, I am not holding this coin now.

[Darker45]

Saw this on the news yesterday. Some of my friends who own Monero called me and they were scared of seeing such news and worry about any incoming sharp price fall but we should pay attention to the word "former". That's really unfortunate but this will affect the market and the price. However, I feel sorry for him, doesn't matter about the regulation stuff but he did a great job as a dev by his contribution to monero project where can feel more privacy with untraceable transactions, I recpet him and I take my hat off to him.

The arrest of Riccardo Spagni should not affect the popularity and price of the Monero coin, since the fraud he committed is not related to the cryptocurrency, especially since at this time he is no longer the developer of this coin.
Of course, the fraud he committed is fairly easy to prove if the police immediately secured evidence of it.
Monero may soon lose its position due to tighter regulation of the circulation of cryptocurrencies with a high level of anonymity from the regulatory authorities. Therefore, I am not holding this coin now.

It's not that the man was no longer the developer of Monero during the crime was committed. The crime was committed even before Monero came into existence. Monero was launched in 2014 and the crime took place around 2009 or even earlier, so that's around 5 years before Monero was a thing.

Forget about Monero being on the wrong side of the fence. It is about whether it is efficient in providing privacy. After all, privacy is what Monero is all about. It is understandable that the authorities won't like it.

Anyway, Monero shouldn't be dragged into the discussion. The crime is more related to cookies than cryptocurrency.

[NotATether]

Meanwhile, one of BSV's attack dogs has joined the fray, exploited the opportunity, making things more muddled.

[img width=500~]https://i.imgur.com/hcHCdoG.png[/img]

I wouldn't pay any attention to this mudslinging, he's just desperate to use anything as ammunition against Cobra.

[SFR10]

Spagni, known online as “Fluffypony,” is accused of stealing approximately $100,000 from his former employer, Cape Cookies, by generating false invoices from fictional entities and routing payment to his personal bank accounts between 2009-2011.

If that turns out to be the case, then he's a di*k

Doesn't he have a legal representative to arrange everything and make sure he's aware of the trial dates?

He does and apparently, there was a misunderstanding ^{[he thought he was excused]} and his attorney represented him on that day: Point "#6 and #7".
I think this thread belongs to the "Reputation" board instead.

[tiCeR]

Riccardo Spagni, the former maintainer of privacy coin monero, was arrested in Nashville, Tenn. on July 20 and will be extradited to South Africa to face fraud charges for crimes unrelated to crypto.

Spagni, known online as “Fluffypony,” is accused of stealing approximately $100,000 from his former employer, Cape Cookies, by generating false invoices from fictional entities and routing payment to his personal bank accounts between 2009-2011.

Spagni was previously charged with fraud and related charges in a regional court in Cape Town, but pleaded not guilty and failed to appear in court. According to court documents, South African authorities could not find Spagni at his home address in South Africa. After speaking with Spagni’s friends and family they learned Spagni had fled South Africa.

Here is his profile on here - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=94840

Full article - https://www.coindesk.com/former-monero-maintainer-fluffypony-to-be-extradited-for-non-crypto-crimes

What I find crazy is the time span between the crime itself and the actual charges that are now pressed against him. I don't know about limitation periods in that country, but we are talking about 10 years, maybe even more than and it is not murder. Does that still make sense to you guys? Isn't theft or fraud in a "minor" case rather three to five years or something? I am not saying this is a minor case, but this is not Bernie Maddoff style or anything like that.

[capcaypro]

one more person's mistake that resulted in everything being affected, because after this there will definitely be those who say that krypto is a tool for criminals and a money laundering tool
and again monero continues to be a target, but this is not surprising because by its very nature Monero is a secure, private and untraceable currency system. and this is an opportunity for people who are not responsible for carrying out their actions but this is certainly a new weapon for fuders and anti-crypto to attack