Shrem to jail for two years!!! Holy shit!

[ab8989]

Two years for him while all those banking exec douchebags who helped facilitate money laundering on an industrial scale got off with fines. Crazy world.

By the way  .... Are you in favour of collective punishment for helping facilitate something?

be very careful what you wish for.

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[exoton]

That's terrible news. He didn't do anything ethically wrong.

Throughout all this, I've been wondering how much he was actually complicit in the Silk Road stuff. Apparently he knew that btcking had something to do with the Silk Road, but was it just a bit of passing knowledge, or was he actually very purposefully trying to help btcking with money laundering? I'd feel better if it was the latter, since at least he'd have known the risks ahead of time.

The evidence presented by the government is unclear as to how much Charlie knew about BTCking's involvement in Silk road, although it seems to be pretty clear that he knew he was doing some kind of money laundering as he was telling his business partner that he was banning him from using his services while privately telling him to how circumvent his internal controls that were suppose to prevent him from being able to use his services.

[tokeweed]

and how much jail time did those execs do who were responsible for the 2008 global financial crisis?

NONE.

mother fuckers.

[Robert Paulson]

this is bullshit.
two years in jail for a crime with no victim.
the only criminal in this trial is the American government.

[Come-from-Beyond]

the only criminal in this trial is the American government.

You are stating an obvious fact, my friend. America killed a lot of innocent people and keep doing it every day (for democracy). Charlie should thank God that he got just 2 years instead of death penalty...

[Bitcoins101]

The streets are now safe. Thank you government for protecting us.

 

[franky1]

if ubricht gets a lesser sentance.. or btcking.. then shrem should appeal his sentancing as it does not fall into line that a lesser crime compared to the other two deserves a bigger punnishment.

Are you kidding?  Ulbricht is going to get no less than 20 years.  He is in a complete different position than Shrem.  Shrem was a little loose with the folks he chose as business partners and didn't care what they were engaged in.  

Ulbricht set up one of the biggest drug trading platforms known to man.  

Ol' Shremmy was a bit naughty - but not too much more.  Ross is a world class drug lord of epic proportions.  He could go to jail for life.  Size does matter.  Ross sold more drugs that nearly anyone in history.  Many poor suckers caught with a two pound bag of cocaine did 20 years.  Ross does no less than them - I am certain of that.

If that murder for hire stuff sticks - 100% he never sees light of day again.

I think the same sa you, Ulbricht is going to be sentenced to almost all his entire life in prison.

i understand that ulbrichts crimes are on a mega high scale in comparison to shrems. and if u read my post you will see that i have categorised btckings ventures as being more criminal than shrems and then ulbrichts as being higher again..

my point being is that if by that small 0.01% chance that ulbricht gets a light sentance or no sentance due to evidence being thrown out or some legal loop hole he tries. then shrem should get a lighter sentance than whatever btcking or ulbricht gets.. thats all im saying

[LiteCoinGuy]

in the meantime:

[bitcoinmining]

This is impressive sentence from Thomas Jefferson; but it doesn't belong to this thread. Or do you plan any resistance about it?

[Chavez]

Don't they have to prove intent? Did he actually know of the connection with Silk Road?

This is the Americans for you.

Proof not needed.



~BCX~

Didn't he plead guilty? I think they had him pretty much screwed anyway. The law is going to come after you if you're tied to this sort of stuff sadly.

[JuanHungLo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5hjf4i3DY0&feature=youtu.be&a

I really like what Luke R. has to say about because it is bitcoin, instead of the dollar, a message has to be sent.  It's not like HBSC got anything other than a slap on the wrist fine...twice!

[TKeenan]

Damn.  I predicted that Shrem would never go to jail.  This prediction was based in part on my guess that he'd cooperate fully and help glue some pieces together from Bitcoin's early times and that Krapholes was the main target.  Another part was that what Shrem did was simply not all that big a deal and for not all that much money (so far as I know from mainstream reports.)

I hate to be wrong.  I'll modify my prediction to be that if he does do any 'time' it will be one of those deals where he get's to check in on weekends or whatever.  I should just retract my prediction, but I'm stubborn like that.

Hilarious!!  You can sure tell you are French!!

'Never go to jail'
In France, you can nearly get away with murder.  In fact, you actually have to go to jail 'for life' (7 years).  That's right, a 'life' sentence is 7 years.  For little things like embezzling and money laundering - France doesn't do much more than say 'naughty boy' - and then set you free.  Which is why this guy expects Shrem not to go to jail.  In the US, cleaning money for major drug operations is a big crime and you've got to go to big jail.


"what Shrem did was simply not all that big a deal "
Like I said, in Europe money laundering is pretty common and not a big deal.  Everyone does it.

"if he does do any 'time' it will be one of those deals where he get's to check in on weekends or whatever."
Not even.  This is the Fed we are talking about.  They don't even have parole.  He is behind bars ALREADY.  Sometimes a judge will give you 7 days to put your affairs in order, but most times they take you 5 seconds after the sentence is read.  Think about that: Shrem spent last night is a cold small cement cell with a stainless steel toilet next to his head and a large black 'roommate'.

Life is easy in France my friend.  Get away with murder and they are serving croissants in jail with a nice view (actually Monaco has the very nice view from jail).  

[TKeenan]

Heh ...2 years in the USA he will be out in 6 months on good behavior etc....most he will serve imho is 1 year...the rest
will be like 5 years probation or some such

Nope - the Fed doesn't have a program for reduced sentences.  You get what you get.  You don't get out early.  That is from state prisons. 

[HELP.org]

That's terrible news. He didn't do anything ethically wrong.

Throughout all this, I've been wondering how much he was actually complicit in the Silk Road stuff. Apparently he knew that btcking had something to do with the Silk Road, but was it just a bit of passing knowledge, or was he actually very purposefully trying to help btcking with money laundering? I'd feel better if it was the latter, since at least he'd have known the risks ahead of time.

Your "ethically wrong" argument is for Internet discussion boards and it holds no weight in the real world and is obviously wrong.  While the system is abused the laws were put in place to stop things like terrorism, human trafficking, etc.  The laws were put in place for an ethical purpose and they sometime work.  People want these laws because they sometimes do work and people feel it protects their security.  You can try to point to abuses and claim the whole system should stop and claim it is "morally wrong" but they are going to point to you and say allowing terrorism and human trafficking is morally wrong.  in any case the laws are in place and it doesn't matter what you think.

As for Shrem, you can read the evidence.  It looked like some guy kept bugging him and he finally caved and did the transaction.  It was not an ongoing conspiracy and he had no record so I think he should have gotten probation.  Shrem admitted to knowing the guy was doing money transmission without a license and did the transaction anyway.

[Wonka]

Damn.  I predicted that Shrem would never go to jail.  This prediction was based in part on my guess that he'd cooperate fully and help glue some pieces together from Bitcoin's early times and that Krapholes was the main target.

He may have cooperated in some capacity to get a reduced sentence. Two years doesn't seem that bad and I would've thoughr they'd try make an example out of him.

[QuestionAuthority]

Wow, he's a very lucky kid with an obviously great legal team. His charges and sentence could have been much worse. It's too bad he couldn't have just listened to his inner voice and not done it. If you watch The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin you will see several times that he looks nervous and says something like, I need to make sure we're not breaking any laws, that we're compliant. Watch that movie with the knowledge of what he did and you will spot the fear in his behavior.

Franklin Jurado got 90 months for that crime. Willie Whitehurst was sentenced to 151 months. Anthony Foster was sentenced to 121 months. Brandon Royce Taylor was sentenced to 180 months. Thamous Eugene Taylor - 60 months. Cynthia Marquez - 120 months. One after another conspirators to money laundering get long sentences. 24 months is like a walk in the park compared to what could have been a healthy chunk of his life.

[Dogtanian]

Wow, he's a very lucky kid with an obviously great legal team. His charges and sentence could have been much worse. It's too bad he couldn't have just listened to his inner voice and not done it. If you watch The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin you will see several times that he looks nervous and says something like, I need to make sure we're not breaking any laws, that we're compliant. Watch that movie with the knowledge of what he did and you will spot the fear in his behavior.

I think it's very easy to get into trouble being an exchange or money transmitter when you're dealing with bitcoins. So many regulations and hoops you've got to jump through.

Franklin Jurado got 90 months for that crime. Willie Whitehurst was sentenced to 151 months. Anthony Foster was sentenced to 121 months. Brandon Royce Taylor was sentenced to 180 months. Thamous Eugene Taylor - 60 months. Cynthia Marquez - 120 months. One after another conspirators to money laundering get long sentences. 24 months is like a walk in the park compared to what could have been a healthy chunk of his life.

And the banks get away scott free.

[franky1]

I think it's very easy to get into trouble being an exchange or money transmitter when you're dealing with bitcoins. So many regulations and hoops you've got to jump through.

And the banks get away scott free.

there are NO bitcoin licences as of 2013-2014.. so that statement is incorrect. the problem is a bitcoin exchange that happens to touch FIAT.. by the act of swapping dollars for bitcoins means a fiat licence is required. and which then comes with rules of use for fiat. its not a fault of bitcoin that shrem now has 2 years.. its a fault of agreeing to FIAT regulations.. and then secretly avoiding them

[exoton]

Wow, he's a very lucky kid with an obviously great legal team. His charges and sentence could have been much worse. It's too bad he couldn't have just listened to his inner voice and not done it. If you watch The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin you will see several times that he looks nervous and says something like, I need to make sure we're not breaking any laws, that we're compliant. Watch that movie with the knowledge of what he did and you will spot the fear in his behavior.

Franklin Jurado got 90 months for that crime. Willie Whitehurst was sentenced to 151 months. Anthony Foster was sentenced to 121 months. Brandon Royce Taylor was sentenced to 180 months. Thamous Eugene Taylor - 60 months. Cynthia Marquez - 120 months. One after another conspirators to money laundering get long sentences. 24 months is like a walk in the park compared to what could have been a healthy chunk of his life.

I think he was essentially betting that law enforcement would not be able to take down silk road as this was where the majority of the evidence against him was found (I think there was also some evidence found on freedom hosting (?) servers that was hosting some kind of tor email service).

He was also putting a good amount of trust in DPR (n/k/a Ross - most likely) to periodically purge potentially incrementation information about SR's users (which Ross did not do - he actually backed it up in the US).

In theory, Charlie could have fought the collection of the evidence against him as being unconstitutional, however this would be somewhat of a long shot plus he was facing decades in jail if found guilty of all counts against him

[cakir]

Can some please explain why he even paid $1M? If the $1M moved through the BitInstant service, the fee was around 0.26% on that, so $2.6k. Even if Shrem charged 2%, that's only $20k in profits. How on earth can he be required to pay x50 of that *and* get jail time?

If he didn't cooperate with the government and didn't give the silkroader's id's, he deserves this kinda punishment.
If something is illegal and you do it then you got busted; you've to pay the price...