I had a bad feeling about that guy from the start. Most of the NXT people talk it up, but he was screaming how great it is. Anytime somebody is screaming on these forums I think it is a scam. But so far all the NXT people have been really honest and generally involved in the tech. This guy though didn't have anything to do with developing. So sad that one guy can pump the price so high and then rip people off.
It was a hacker which toke the control of Jhon's account, wasn't it? That could happen to anyone.... what we should do now is verify the identity when one of the community members asks for this amount of money.
It was a Hacker which have nothing to do with nxt security or the integrity of this guy... Is like one reputable member of btc community get hacked and ask for funds, no one doubt about his good intentios and everyone send money thinking that is the real account owner
There's no ascertained hacker - only speculation at the moment as no one can apparently get a hold of him. John is apparently on the world's longest flight, probably has zipped around the equator a few times.
Shouldn't people have John's phone number?
BM's theory is likely the correct one - John is a crooked guy who saw an opportunity to build hype and now he's gone (in the wind) with $200K+. He'll probably infiltrate another coin community and try to get money off them.
Here are some observations:
1) It appears the majority of the btc in the account belong to the scammer and was used to "prime the pump" and create a sense of "social proof" to make it seem legit. The bitcoins were sent into the account in roughly 3 min and roughly 15 min intervals which is weird.... statistically, it doesn't appear to be statistically probable that random people around the world would just send btc in precise time intervals like that which leads me to think that probably 175 of the those 202 btc already belong to the scammer.
2) There has NOT been conclusive evidence that John Manglaviti is guilty nor innoccent. I have friends sitting in u.s. prisons for being accused of drug crimes in which they did not commit or even know about so let's make sure we have irrefutable evidence before we start making judgement or accusations.
Having "feelings about the guy" or he "screaming about how great he was" will probably not constitute as "evidence" in most people's eyes or in any court.
3) I personally know that nearly half a dozen people are in direct contact with John investigating this matter at the moment and they will probably share their findings once they have some solid proof of guilt or innocence.
4) John is not the "public face" or "public figure" or "leader" of nxt. We have ricky james, myself, brian snyder, etc. and many others who have spoken publicly about nxt. does that make us the public figure of nxt? probably not. all it means is that we spoke about nxt in public. Don't kid yourself about this "public" or "leader" nonsense.
5) Some say, "The statue of limitations for these sort of crimes is 7 years or less." This is not true. In the U.S. if the police does not know that a crime existed there is no statue of limitation. A statue of limitation begins when the police are fully aware that a crime happened and chose not to pursue it. in this case, a crime has occurred but no one knows who is the perpetrator so the crime can be picked up at any time when the police decide to investigate it.
6) The nxt community is made up of very talented and smart individuals n fairly experienced in crypto. Accusing the nxt community of being foolish about giving up 200 btc to a scammer is retarded especiallly when the majority of the btc in the scammer's account was owned by the scammer himself. Let's not make a mountain out of an ant hill.
7) The best way to clear up this mess n move on is not to make accusations but to put yourself in the shoes of John and ask yourself.... if you were innocent... what would you do to provide conclusive evidence that you were innocent to the community? Then ask John to provide the evidence.
If John is guilty then I do hope he gets what he deserves. However, if he is innocent, it would be a shame to slam an innocent person with a lifetime ban in crypto.
My comments here are just my opinions based on the experiences I've had with the U.S. federal court systems. Do not think that I believe John to be innocent or guilty. I am simply stating what i observe and investigating the truth as well.
Tai Zen
