You sound as certain & use the same logic as the intrepid NeoBee investors did when I questioned the integrity of Mr. Danny Brewster (see pic).
I am not sufficiently familiar with this and don't see how it pertains to the matter discussed.
1. A financial institution unwilling to offer the bare rudiments of corporate information, such as address, business registration, and names of the key players likely has a reason for doing so.
I agree with you on this.
2. Registering a company in Cyprus is trivial, registering an exchange is not.
Registering a financial (stocks, bonds, currencies) exchange most likely isn't but Bitcoin is new. I can't easily check its legal status in Cyprus but it varies wildly from country to country. For instance, it is considered property in the USA, a foreign currency in Switzerland (if I remember correctly) and, believe it or not, a service in Bulgaria (as a lawyer specializing in IT-related law told me just a couple of days ago). So, registering a company that "buys and sells digital goods" might be much easier there. This needs checking, though.
2(a). If BTC-e is registered, and has not provided the registration to its clients, why?
I don't know. And I don't care. This is of concern only of its clients, which I am not one of. Also, I don't think that there is a law in Cyprus that says that every registered company has the obligation to provide the registration information to its clients.
It seems that you are trying to imply that BTC-e is a shady business. I am not inclined to argue with you on this - mostly because I don't care what kind of business it is; I have no financial stake in it. I simply reported what I knew about it since the subject arose.
3. Regardless, not registering a company is easier still, especially when one wishes to obscure the names of the key players.
It is simply not possible when you have to deal with large amounts of money in various currencies going through the fiat banking system. They could, however, refrain from revealing the fact that their company was registered in Cyprus. Yet they didn't do so.
4. Registering a shell requires a name. Even when said name belongs to some carder degenerate willing to lend it for a nominal sum. Such people are easy to flip when shit gets real.
You have to provide the name and identification to the company registrar, however - not necessarily to the whole world.
5. Assuming that an anonymous Bitcoin financial institution will hang around when things go wrong, or when it becomes more profitable to walk with the money, is the stuff bitcointalk legends are made of.
I don't see how this is related to the subject of what kind of operation (Bulgarian, Russian or whatever) BTC-e is and where it is registered. As I wrote above, if what you are harping at is that it is a shady business and shouldn't be trusted, I am simply not interested in debating this issue with you and would readily accept your opinion on it.
If the people running this thing are not Russian citizens, do not reside in Russia
They said that they resided in Russia - at least at the time when they wrote this - but weren't Russian citizens.
what makes it a Russian business again?
The fact that it was created and is maintained by native Russians (and not Bulgarians, for instance).
I'm a native Russian speaker, BTW.
Yes, I could tell, even from just your otherwise excellent English. It should be even easier for you to see that the site was created by native Russian speakers and not just translated to Russian.
