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TN Man Indicted For Romney Blackmail Attempt: Wanted $1M In Bitcoins
OakDragon writes "A Franklin, Tennessee man has been indicted for his attempt to blackmail Mitt Romney. Michael Mancil Brown allegedly claimed his intent to release some of Romney's pre-2010 tax documents unless one million dollars was converted to Bitcoins and deposited into an account which he specified. Demand letters were sent to Republican and Democratic Party offices in Tennessee, and Pricewaterhouse Coopers (whom he claimed to have stolen the documents from). Pricewaterhouse Coopers denies that he ever obtained such documents. Brown was also attempting to "sell" the documents to others (presumably the Democrats or other interested parties) for the same amount. And yes, he was apparently well aware of the Dr. Evil reference."
It's not like he was asking for anything of value in return.
If he just asked for dollars instead of bitcoins, would you still have posted this??!! I don't get it, what makes this story relevant to tech or geeky news??
"Man charged for accepting bitcoins"
because all he does is trying to open-source romney tax return
Your bias is showing.
There is video evidence of his blackmail too.
Despite the efforts of Republican pollsters to make the whole country speak in a way that focus groups showed was mildly favorable to their interests, there is no such entity as the "Democrat Party."
starting the insanity defense early
You're right.
Corrected now; that was a slip-up, should have caught it in the original submission.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Look, these tax returns are unique, kinda neat. But if I buy them, they are gonna sit on a shelf for 6 months. I have to find just the right buyer. And even then, I am not sure I can get $1 million for them. I'll give you 50 bucks.
sudo make me a sandwich
Who the hell is he?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
$1 Mil in Bitcoins is the total daily volume of MtGrox. I am thinking it might take some work to get that many bitcoins in short order.
mnewberg.com
I mean Tennesseans are barely sentient beings, so can we really hold this guy accountable for his actions?
Meh, just wait a week, tops, until the wildly unstable value of a Bitcoin* flings itself out such that 0.5BTC is equal to $1M. A half hour later, it'll be down to 12 cents, then up to $32, then another crash will happen*, but at the time of the transaction, it was a fair trade*.
*: Which the Bitcoin loonies trumpet as a sign of the system's "health".
$1M worth of BTC bought back on Sept 2, 2012 would be valued over $10M today and closer to $25M during the peak a few months ago. What blackmail!
Kind of pointless too, since from what I read Bitcoin transaction hashes are designed to identify exactly where the money came from, so it would be very difficult for him to convert the money into a fiat currency without it being extremely traceable.
He would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for that meddling printer. Such a perfect plan.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
or you just immediately convert it back to dollars, foo
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
Another example of why both law enforcement and regulators will have increasing interest in Bitcoin as it becomes more heavily used.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Kind of pointless too, since from what I read Bitcoin transaction hashes are designed to identify exactly where the money came from, so it would be very difficult for him to convert the money into a fiat currency without it being extremely traceable.
There are laundries where this is possible (For a fee). Not every exit to BTC is guarded by the US or its extraditing allies.
well yeah if you would expect every bitcoin user to care about it - which you can't.
and since you can't, you can laundry it.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Why does anyone consider Mitt Romney's 2010 worth anything at all, and what in the bleeding blue hell is so bad on these that it's considered ransom-able?
I got here through a series of tubes
False equivalence. Obama is not remotely as bad as Romney, not within orders of magnitude. Although, if you'd been indoctrinated by Fox News and all the rest of the dishonest conservative media, and you believed all the lies, you sure would believe he was.
Or use one of the 800+ vendors that accept bitcoins.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
There should be a "Liar" mod.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Bitcoin provides anonymity. Unfortunately like most computer security mechanisms, the weak link is the human being using them.
Even if this guy had the alleged information, and wasn't stupid enough to get caught, it makes no sense for Romney to pay him. If Romney paid the guy $1M in bitcoins, there is nothing stopping him from also selling the info to the democrats or a newspaper immediately afterwards for another $1M. It's not like you can sue the guy for breach of contract.