2014-06-03SEC charges owner of bitcoin sites for selling unregistered securities

[Swordsoffreedom]

Summary:

The SEC announced charges against the operator of SatoshiDice and a bitcoin marketing site for selling unregistered securities and taking bitcoin as payment.

In a release, the SEC said the operator, Erik Voorhees, sold millions of shares in the two sites without registering the securities as required by law.

Voorhees, who took payment for the unregistered securities in bitcoin, will disgorge around $15,000 in profits and pay a fine of $35,000 under a settlement agreement.

From: http://gigaom.com/2014/06/03/sec-charges-owner-of-bitcoin-sites-for-selling-unregistered-securities/

(Secondary Sourcing)
Just noticed this was noted yesterday

[Lethn]

Surprise, surprise, getting tired of all these Bitcoin companies getting knocked down a peg because they didn't research the basics of forming a business before they actually went and did it, it'd be nice if we saw some actual companies that produced stuff and weren't illegal that we could invest in.

[bryant.coleman]

I lost almost 80% of my Bitcoin stash when Litecoinglobal closed down (BTCT.co). These fake security exchanges needs to be closed down before many more are conned by them.

[Neg]

People should be weary of where they send there coins to and know the risks involved. That fine seems quite small to say he made millions aswell.

[fancy_pants]

Surprise, surprise, getting tired of all these Bitcoin companies getting knocked down a peg because they didn't research the basics of forming a business before they actually went and did it, it'd be nice if we saw some actual companies that produced stuff and weren't illegal that we could invest in.

Why don't you show up at a developer meetup with your checkbook?  There are plenty of companies/people doing good stuff, but the only way to get those "boring" companies in the press is to buy advertising.

[b!z]

Meh, only $50k? Eric can afford it; he sold SD for $12m.

[runam0k]

I don't think there's a single security (whether you decide to call it a bond or a contract or a profit unit) in the Securities subsection that the SEC can't go after, frankly.

Exchanges do nothing more than putting everything in one place and giving the SEC a nice checklist.

Tiny fine in this instance though.

[notthematrix]

Well just move things off shore that's how to handle this.
BTC-e knew this from the beginning.

[Ron~Popeil]

Well just move things off shore that's how to handle this.
BTC-e knew this from the beginning.

Yep. With the internet you can establish yourself in a foreign jurisdiction and still transact business in the US. Hopefully some countries realize this and make themselves into bit coin havens the the a lot of Caribbean countries became currency havens.