I don't see anyone going to jail....hell,all BFL got was a $15,000 fine,so.................
BFL, shady and scammy as it was, actually did build miners and ship some. There was a tangible product they were clearly producing, they just vastly oversold their actual ability to deliver and did "burn testing (i.e. free mining). That's wrong, but the government cannot just go after people for that because there are infinite examples of legitimate computer companies, for instance, doing the same thing (hundreds of millions of dollars from advanced orders for computers that are either chronically delayed or simply non-existent at the time). As long as they can make a plausible case that they are just incompetent as opposed to openly fraudulent, it simply isn't ever going to be criminal.
Furthermore, they were busted by the FTC which is an agency that has much less history of its proceedings working their way into criminal charges. It's basically how you get slapped on the wrist for false advertising.
The SEC, on the other hand, is frequently a prelude to criminal charges. Just ask Pirate@40, because that's actually what happened to him. The SEC did the legwork and then handed the case over to the FBI, at which point the dude just plead out because it was going to be hopeless.
Josh Garza indisputably ran a ponzi. He didn't cherry-pick and selectively deliver his products to reviewers, no, he sold pictures of things that never existed, publicly made impossible promises directly contrary to law, and made numerous fraudulent representations like standing in front of fake mining equipment.
He said he was mining, he never was. He made direct promises of profitability based on capital reserves that did not exist. Any money that went out came from money that went in, without exception. He made representations that he was collecting money that would go to charity, and it clearly didn't.
Remember the "Y U NO SHIP" foam toys from BFL? The FTC made a big deal of them, despite not really being all that meaningful legally speaking, because they are absolute dynamite to a jury. That kind of thing might not be able to directly affect what you get charged with, but it absolutely will affect whether you get convicted for it.
The 9/11 stakers are a similar deal. It's just another aspect of fraud to a case replete with it, but it makes it clear to a jury what this is all about. They might not get "mining", crypto-currency or even what a "Security" is, but when Josh can't show where that money went or even what charity he supposedly partnered with, believe me, a 80 year-old grandmother who is an illiterate daughter of an oakie sharecropper will understand what Garza did.
The Feds are going to get him, that's undoubtedly what the stay is about.
