New 400 BTC Bounty Pales Roger Ver's 37.6 BTC Bounty for Return of Stolen BTC

[AT101ET]

I don't seem to understand... I've read quite a few accusations against staff on this forum. How can staff here have been involved in illicit activities?

How is it possible they can't? Theymos can't possibly keep tabs on everyone's actions in his staff.

Sort of shows a corrupt system. You can't have the leaders of a community (in this case a forum) who are guilty of theft. If there's proof then that should suffice. Just seems daunting that people who you trust can just stab you in the back. They should be leading by example and should be here to make the forum a better place... Not actively involve themselves in the scams themselves!

Now I'm not saying they are all guilty. I'm sure most are perfectly honest. Just speaking hypothetically if all the rumours and accusations are true.

[JorgeStolfi]

I don't seem to understand... I've read quite a few accusations against staff on this forum. How can staff here have been involved in illicit activities?

How is it possible they can't? Theymos can't possibly keep tabs on everyone's actions in his staff.

Erm, how many thousand administrators are employed to keep the bitcointalk.org site running?
(There must be a few hundred working full-time on the avatar bug alone, I presume.)

[TooDumbForBitcoin]

Uh-oh, this thread needs some Round-Up.  The Stolfi weed is trying to infest. 

Better get Ignore!

[RainMan28]

So this must be largest bounty ever offered in history of BTCBTCBTC.I think it should be featured in major magazines. Good luck to OP

Since the bounty is contingent upon PG first receiving the money, it's not really that newsworthy in my opinion. Now if PG had set aside that much BTC in a trusted escrow account to pay out to the winner, then that would be something else!

[CryptoKilla]

I really hope that a bounty this large will lead to the recovery of your stolen coins. Good luck to you!

[madmat]

This thread is running for 3 days now and phin didn't give the informations requested by the ones ready to help investigating. I begin to think this thread is going nowhere.

[Marlo Stanfield]

I don't seem to understand... I've read quite a few accusations against staff on this forum. How can staff here have been involved in illicit activities?

How is it possible they can't? Theymos can't possibly keep tabs on everyone's actions in his staff.

Sort of shows a corrupt system. You can't have the leaders of a community (in this case a forum) who are guilty of theft. If there's proof then that should suffice. Just seems daunting that people who you trust can just stab you in the back. They should be leading by example and should be here to make the forum a better place... Not actively involve themselves in the scams themselves!

Now I'm not saying they are all guilty. I'm sure most are perfectly honest. Just speaking hypothetically if all the rumours and accusations are true.

In this case the accused holds the proof himself so he's either innocent and failing to alleviate doubts regarding his guilt, or he's guilty and probably thinks he pulled off the perfect crime.

[BlueBitAUT]

This thread is running for 3 days now and phin didn't give the informations requested by the ones ready to help investigating. I begin to think this thread is going nowhere.

Maybe Phinn took my advice and takes a rest, calms down and is trying to write down whats needed.
If not, then you might be right with your assumption.
People willing to help can't sort this mess out, if there aren't all infos ... so without his help and the requested overview, we won't get far.

[BlueBitAUT]

Hey Phinn,

I'm just curious,...

What about that list?!

Are you still on it?
Is this case solved?
Or is it a sign of capitulation, that you're not replying to this thread anymore (but had around a dozen other postings, the last days)?

[TheTracker]

Even after reading through the whole thread I still haven't seen any proof regarding all of this? I just finished the french thread and found nothing there either.. So I'm at a loss here?

Is there any real evidence that the Starter of this thread actually lost money to this "Davout" guy?

Plus offering a Robin Hood style reward after retrieving the money isn't going to help much, what's to stop whomever reads this from going in there and forcing Davout to give him the btc? Nothing...

[madmat]

Even after reading through the whole thread I still haven't seen any proof regarding all of this? I just finished the french thread and found nothing there either.. So I'm at a loss here?

Is there any real evidence that the Starter of this thread actually lost money to this "Davout" guy?

Plus offering a Robin Hood style reward after retrieving the money isn't going to help much, what's to stop whomever reads this from going in there and forcing Davout to give him the btc? Nothing...

You are right, there is no evidence at all. Phinn has to give a proof, or at least give so many details than "blockchain detectives" could find an evidence. If he doesn't have any proof, he must give up.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

Looks like davout is posting in the french section:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=649320.msg7268591#msg7268591

Here above is his first post I believe in that thread of many. Perhaps someone can translate and persuade him to come to this thread to discuss?

Seems like he is hiding out over there instead lol

He can mod and delete posts he doesn't like there. He can't here.

[madmat]

Looks like davout is posting in the french section:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=649320.msg7268591#msg7268591

Here above is his first post I believe in that thread of many. Perhaps someone can translate and persuade him to come to this thread to discuss?

Seems like he is hiding out over there instead lol

He can mod and delete posts he doesn't like there. He can't here.

I created the french thread on this subject, and davout didn't moderate any post in it. This issue is nothing new for him, and it is like he doesn't care at all.

[BlueBitAUT]

Well...

it's somehow funny, but ... to me, it looks like Phinn changed his mind to something like:
"mehh, who cares!? It's only 1130 BTC or ~680k USD, so why should I invest any more time to answer questions, only to get those peanuts back. I'm better off posting in other threads instead."
 

Maybe a healthy decision, who knows...

[JorgeStolfi]

Phinn's silence on this thread is worrisome, but so is that of the InstaWallet ex-owners.  I understand that Phinn is not the only person with such claim.  Also, it is claimed that the ex-owners refunded themselves before the customers, which is the opposite of the established rule in legal liquidations.

Is there any post (in some other thread, on reddit, etc.) where they have responded to these claims?

EDIT: I see that the French language thread has 7 pages of discussion on this.  Could someone please provide a one-line summary of the ex-owners counterclaim?  (With my poor French, I think I understood that Davout denies that Phinn had those coins in IsntaWallet, is that it?)

[Nicolas Dorier]

Phinn's silence on this thread is worrisome, but so is that of the InstaWallet ex-owners.  I understand that Phinn is not the only person with such claim.  Also, it is claimed that the ex-owners refunded themselves before the customers, which is the opposite of the established rule in legal liquidations.

Is there any post (in some other thread, on reddit, etc.) where they have responded to these claims?

EDIT: I see that the French language thread has 7 pages of discussion on this.  Could someone please provide a one-line summary of the ex-owners counterclaim?  (With my poor French, I think I understood that Davout denies that Phinn had those coins in IsntaWallet, is that it?)

In summary I said that it pissed me off when I waste my time helping someone that does not even care.

[JorgeStolfi]

Davout says that he has looked over all addresses previously owned by Instawallet and did not find anything close to what BK claims. He also says he did it on the (supposedly) uncorrupted backups in case the thief had erased transactions from the live database.
Also more details here : http://log.bitcoin-assets.com/?date=12-06-2014#714544

Thanks! Well, it seems that we must wait for Phinn's to provide a reasonable reply to that.  If he lost records of his deposits/holdings,  I don't see much hope of him getting the coins back.

There has not been a "liquidation" per se. They just closed the service and reimbursed the (valid) claims.

I understod that.  My point was that in legal liquidations the managers of the company have the lowest priority; their claims are considered only after all the others -- even if they are not charged with fraud or negligence.  I suppose that this rule is intended to remove certain obvious temptations from managers.  It seems to be a sensible rule, that bitcoiners should demand when bitcoin ventures collapse, too.

[JorgeStolfi]

My point was that in legal liquidations the managers of the company have the lowest priority; their claims are considered only after all the others -- even if they are not charged with fraud or negligence.  I suppose that this rule is intended to remove certain obvious temptations from managers.  It seems to be a sensible rule, that bitcoiners should demand when bitcoin ventures collapse, too.

There was no liquidation at all. The company is still serving its customers. Only unsustainable services have been terminated. So what is your point exactly?

Peace, I must have minsunderstood a remark in this post as claiming that the owners of InstaWallet (or was it Paymium?) refunded themselves before other clients, after the hack and closure of their wallet service.  If that was not the case, apologies for any unwarranted implication, and please forget it.

[Keyser Soze]

Phinn's silence on this thread is worrisome...

I assume because he doesn't really have anything else to add. The only useful information he can provide is the two InstaWallet URLs and the approximate balances, which InstaWallet has no record of. Bruno either needs to find additional information or take legal action. Presumably legal action would a difficult route if this is all the information he has.

[JorgeStolfi]

Still... Phinn provided two URLS that, as I understood, are connected somehow to InstaWallet wallets.  Are those two URLS legitimate?  If so, has Davout provided his version of what those wallets may have contained? Does the instaWallet databases have any records about them?  If so, have those records been posted?