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LibertyReserve.com Shuttered, Founder Arrested In Spain
hypnosec writes "Libertyreserve.com has been shut with the founder arrested by police in Spain this week over his alleged involvement in money laundering. Libertyreserve.com has been down for over three days now and the arrest seems to be the reason behind the outage. Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk, a 39-year-old male, has been arrested by Spanish authorities as a part of their ongoing investigations into money laundering. U.S. officials may very well seek his extradition."
Sounds like the guy running Bitcoin should keep his anonymity?
That comment shows a complete lack of understanding of what Bitcoin is. What you just said is as vague as saying that "The guy running the Internet better watch his back!"
Regardless, the only reason I know about LibertyReserve is because of Bitcoin. LR used to be one of the few ways to reliably buy Bitcoins, but it looked way too shady for me so I found other ways.
When I read that part the first thing that popped into my head was, "the entire arrest could be bogus".
It's weird, when the U.S. is behind something like this then that increases the chances of the whole thing being bogus.
There is something profoundly broken about our justice system in that the general public takes joy in imagining the likelihood of prison rape.
Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
wtf is libertyreserve? how about a proper sumamary?
It's not the justice system (alone) that's broken, it's the general public.
He should use the HSBC defense.
Or does that only apply if you money-launder billions of drug money?
Like the illegal raids on Kim Dotcom?
Sounds like the guy running Bitcoin should keep his anonymity?
That comment shows a complete lack of understanding of what Bitcoin is. What you just said is as vague as saying that "The guy running the Internet better watch his back!"
Regardless, the only reason I know about LibertyReserve is because of Bitcoin. LR used to be one of the few ways to reliably buy Bitcoins, but it looked way too shady for me so I found other ways.
I really hate to snap you back into reality here, but in the eyes of every single bank in the world, all possible ways to obtain Bitcoins is shady.
Of course, the real irony here is we're going after this guy for "laundering" while trillions sit in offshore accounts, untouched and unaccounted for, under massive tax shelters, as everyone in power simply laughs it off as if it were some kind of old-school ringknocker tradition, while the rest of us pay their taxes.
They both are.
Not only is prison rape wrong even though the victim is a prisoner, but why the hell should the guy doing the raping get free buttsex?
There is something profoundly broken about our justice system in that the general public takes joy in imagining the likelihood of prison rape.
A casual visitor to Slashdot might be excused for thinking that it was the geek --- and not the general public --- who was obsessed with talk of prison rape and never more so then when one of his own is coming up for sentencing on a felony charge,
I'm not sure why you are laboring under the impression that it was ever different. I'd say that despite all the corruption we have now, we still have more in the way of fairness and peace than we've generally had during most of the agrarian age.
It's all open-source, openly developed, openly operated— if the strings you claim exist actually existed you'd be able to point to them easily. So where is your evidence?
Sounds like the guy running Bitcoin should keep his anonymity?
Sounds like the guy who knows nothing about Bitcoin should keep his mouth shut until he knows how it works?
And you won't particularly care to learn this, but LR had far more going on than simply serving as a Bitcoin/USD gateway. If the feds wanted to go after Bitcoin, it would have tried to take out Gox by now (and no, closing their Dwolla doesn't count).
That said, based on their increasing level of fear over a silly little online currency, I have little doubt they will eventually try to shut down all of Bitcoin. And though they may keep Americans from having much to do with it, I look forward to watching the circus as they realize that the can't trick everyone in the world into attending a security conference in Las Vegas to put them through a mock trial.
People of every age like to disasterbate about how bad it is. Yet every objective measure continues to show increasing lifespans and quality of life. Hell, our worst problem now is too many cheap calories per person, throwing a monkey wrench into one of the most historically useful measurements.
These indicators all scale directly with economic freedom, regardless of political narratives of either party. Hell, there shouldn't even be political narratives anymore. We have solved the problem: let people be free.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Actually, Mr. Nerdcoin Apologist, it's entirely possible part of Nerdcoin's design is to make it appear no one is in control of Nerdcoin, when in fact there is someone "pulling the strings." Nerdtcoins ARE shady in and of themselves. Sounds like someone can't see the forest through the trees.
That comment shows you have no understanding of how Bitcoin works.
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If you don't engage in trade and development on the terms of the United States of Terrorism, they will have you extradited.
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Laundering and tax evasion are two different things, why are you confusing them? Laundering is the process of breaking the money trail of illegal activities. You know, like organised crime, human trafficking, drug dealing...
Shuttered and closed have different implications in this case. Closed implies an orderly wind down, while shuttered implies a rapid and disorderly cessation. It's akin the difference between closing time at night a local restaurant, and the owners throwing everyone out in the middle of the day.
Perhaps because shuttered is the correct word
If we put peace and fairness on a scale from 1 to 100, with 100 being perfect justice and no war/fighting, then if we go from a 15 to a 25, it's still an improvement, even if there's much left to be desired. Far more people in the world today do live safe and prosperous lives, lives that were once only for kings and clergy. A lot of people still don't, but it hasn't really gotten worse over the last 1000 years, say.
What I'm basically saying, reduced to its logical beginnings, is:
Treat all cultures as we do Aboriginal cultures: Let them persist as they have been for millennia, without obstruction, intervention, or moral superiority. Let each region, culture evolve under the laws of natural selection until they, too, have reached our (white, Japanese, etc.) level of technology.
And, yes, I believe this should eventually be carried out on even a regional basis, so that some (many?) parts of great megastates, like the United States and China, do not have antibiotics and the wheretodos either invent them or prove their mettle in order to secure immigration to more technologically advanced enclaves.
Slashdot Valentines Beta Massacre: iT WORKED! The boycotts killed Beta!!
Overall, yes. Individually no. Individuals before the invention of modern firearms and rail were able to basically migrate and say piss off to most. But were equally limited in escape from larger numbers. The only people they had to worry about was their neighbors. If you didn't live in Europe it wasn't to bad.
Hermit caves are no longer viable. Small nomadic tribes can no longer just disappear. There are a few exceptions sort of. Like Bedouins. But even they and their Kurdish neighbors are influenced by global economics and politics.
There is a tribe in Africa somewhere that use to not know what New York was. And didn't have a concept of "time" in their language. But I believe they've recently had enough interaction with National Geographic to no longer be immune. They were extremely primitive and isolated. This was covered by good research and journalism.
Now some asshole just has to send a text to be a twat from their epic yacht. That text gives an order and the ball rolls from there. The people executing those orders are of course happy to oblige because they are above the people being executed. And most can indirectly wash their hands of the whole bloody mess and justify it as professional business.
...Except everything with Bitcoin is open. Think there's something shady going on? Look at the source yourself! This isn't some ultra-secret proprietary blob where no one has a clue what's happening, its a well-documented, open ecosystem where anyone can understand how it works.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Any time you see money laundering and digital currencies you should think that the entire thing should be bogus.
The US government thinks that it needs to be able to spy on anyone's account, for any reason, at any time and if you don't agree to violate your customer's privacy you're aiding *insert scare-word of the day*.
I'm imagining that the US government is scared at its increasing financial irrelevance in the digital world. The US Dollar, currently the backbone of most financial transactions is in jeopardy. Digital, open currencies such as Bitcoin provide a transparent look at monetary policy and potentially can have more stability when compared to the US dollar which has the monetary policy of "whatever the hell Bernake thinks is best" and hard money like gold and silver make very good stores of wealth that cannot be devalued by printing.
Now, the total collapse of the US dollar is likely to be delayed because out of the major currencies (USD, Yen, Euro, Sterling) the USD looks to be the one in least jeopardy, but fiat currencies have a 100% rate of failure and its likely that the multitude of better currencies will hasten the end of the USD.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Remember that time when biggest Wall Street and City of London banks were found guilty of laundering drug money? They all went to prison!
And by prison I mean got bonuses.
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
I do not expect this to be common knowledge amongst the general public, seeing as most people are still coming to grips with the concept of an e-currency via their interaction with (or hearing about) Bitcoin, but...
There was an entire selection of e-currencies to choose from before cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin being the first, and premier, example) were even invented by Satoshi in 2009. Liberty Reserve wasn't even the first example of such, but indeed an often trusted replacement for the original e-Gold service that came under fire by the US Department of Justice already over 6 years ago in 2007. There seems to be a basic confusion in the comments so far as to the blatant fundamental differences between services like LR (and e-Gold before it) and Bitcoin (and cryptocurrency derivatives thereof). As a user of centralised e-currencies multiple years before Bitcoin existed, I would like to make a couple of things clear:
The difference between services like Liberty Reserve and e-Gold and Bitcoin is that the former are centralised services operated and controlled by a single collection of people, often legally protected by an incorporated entity in the Central American/Carribean region of the Earth. The pioneers of Internet "e-currencies" such as these specifically chose to create their corporations in this part of the world within known tax havens. It is only natural for the creators to wish to legally establish such a corporation designed specifically to manage money transfers in a place that will minimally tax such transfers.
e-Gold's creators incorporated in the Carribbean island state of St. Kitts and Nevis, and the Liberty Reserve creators incorporated in Panama (altho I truly did not know where the masterminds lived or where from they operated until now, but it seems from this article the answer is España). The entire difference between them and the pseudonymos 'Satoshi Nakamoto' is that old generation e-currency operators maintained central control of monitary transactions using their service. You managed your account by connecting to their website, logging in, and checking your funds, managing transfers, and so forth, but all of this was always under their full control. If they had any issues with your use of your own account, they had the right to shut off your access to it and confiscate all of your funds, with essentially no capability of retrival (I know of people who lost access to thousands of USD this way). They taxed every transfer you wished to make, which affected both transfers between 2 users within the same system (sending LR LR) or to exit/enter the system (exchanging LR to/from USD). They could monitor all transactions made between every user and geolocate non-anonymised users' IP addresses to log all financial activity within their system; with Bitcoin, all transactions are public to all, as opposed to only a select few being able to monitor all else who use this system to transfer money.
The most essentially incorrect aspect of confusing this story with anything to do with Bitcoin, is that Bitcoin is exciting and inspiring exactly because it is the antithesis of centralised architecture, or at least the closest successful example thereof. When we were using Liberty Reserve (or other centralised e-currency), we were completely under the creator's control. LR eventually forced upon users a captcha based in Flash that prevented us from using Tor to login securely as we could for multiple years before. When LR attacked our technical ability to use the service anonymously, many moved to Pecunix. Whilst Pecunix has a better login system (one that blatantly allows for anonymous access), it was still a centralised e-currency controlled by a single group of people operating behind a
If a rich white man does it, it's business. If a poor drug dealer of questionable ethnicity does it, it's a federal crime worthy of extradition. These pricks are why the only "easy" way for me to get money from my US bank is to fly there, take it out in cash, and fly back. But you have a good chance of having it confiscated at one or more borders, if you aren't robbed when they require you count your $100,000 in cash in plain view of hundreds of travelers. "You look nervous and you have cash, I'm going to assume it's drug money and confiscate it" "I look nervous *because* I have cash." "too late, all gone, here's your receipt."
Learn to love Alaska
It was a popular line from a "geek" movie, so it does get more casual play in the geek circles, but it's still a popular opinion. Nobody agrees on what prison is. Is it punishment, deterrent, revenge/vengeance, isolation, or rehabilitation? Often those are mutually exclusive. Or drawn on racial lines, Blacks get the vengeance treatment, and whites get rehab/isolation.
Learn to love Alaska
I tried reading the source but it was all written in code.
It was the same thing with the property bubble. Those invested in the pyramid scheme were always the most vocal, trying to keep prices propped up. Watch this post get modded down now as they try to protect their 'investment'.
Of course, the real irony here is we're going after this guy for "laundering" while trillions sit in offshore accounts, untouched and unaccounted for, under massive tax shelters, as everyone in power simply laughs it off as if it were some kind of old-school ringknocker tradition, while the rest of us pay their taxes.
That would be called a "you too" argument. Doesn't mean the original point is wrong. Also, the US (and most governments in fact) have long established money laundering laws precisely to stop criminals moving money around by any means. I assume they are going after liberyreserve.com because it is running afoul of those laws in some way, e.g. by not reporting large or suspicious transactions or actively facilitating them.
For all the talk about "ZOMG the US government/New World Order/Illuminati is going to take our moneez!" in this thread, I'm surprised there's been absolutely no mention of what Liberty Reserve was often used for: the crimeware trade.
Head over to Krebs on Security for a better idea of why shutting down Liberty Reserve is a Good Thing.
Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!
I think my brain just exploded. What the hell are you talking about?