Slashdot Mirror
Creator of Online Money Gets 20 Years in Prison (cnn.com)
An anonymous reader quotes this report from CNN:
Before the virtual currency Bitcoin there was Liberty Reserve -- and its founder just got sentenced to 20 years in prison. Arthur Budovsky, 42, ran an online digital money business out of Costa Rica called Liberty Reserve. The U.S. government contended that the whole thing was just a massive, $6 billion money laundering operation. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote sentenced him to two decades in federal prison. She said Budovsky did not show "genuine remorse," according to the Department of Justice...
The U.S. government used the Patriot Act to go after this payment processor. The U.S. Treasury Department labeled it a money laundering organization, and cut it off from the American financial system. In 2013, American investigators took over the website and shut it down. In 2014, Budovsky and several coworkers were arrested in Spain. Then Budovsky was extradited to the United States to face trial for money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
The U.S. government used the Patriot Act to go after this payment processor. The U.S. Treasury Department labeled it a money laundering organization, and cut it off from the American financial system. In 2013, American investigators took over the website and shut it down. In 2014, Budovsky and several coworkers were arrested in Spain. Then Budovsky was extradited to the United States to face trial for money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
The fractional reserve cartel hates competition. Give them a cut, or else...
HSBC meanwhile, no-one held to account, no-one jailed etc, in fact the boss is now Minister of State for Trade and Investment. and the woman who was supposed to be over-seeing fraud is now Chairman [sic] of the BBC.
And they call Putin a criminal. The criminals are running our governments and our biggest companies.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
Can you say Kangaroo court? It has more to do with the government's desire to keep its money monopoly on top of all its intrusive regulations.
Can someone explain to me who has jurisdiction over this case and why?
Doesn't it have to say Puerto Rico where it says Costa Rica? The former is a US territory, where the US oviously has jurisdiction. The other is an independent country like for instance Antigua and Barbuda or Belize.
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
I remember this, and I remember thinking at the time that this guy was probably going to get in a shitload of trouble.
He was basically thumbing his nose at the government while playing fast and loose with the currency laws. He was soooooooooo sure that they couldn't touch him because he insisted that he "had the law on his side".
And he may well have, technically speaking, but he lost sight of the fact that "having the law on your side" has never stopped the government from jamming people up if they feel like it. And although it took a while, that's exactly what they did.
Quite a few people who were knowledgeable in currency matters at the time told everyone in no uncertain terms to "stay the hell away" from this guy's scheme, and it turns out that that was good advice.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
He was arrested in Spain for running a business in Costa Rica. How exactly does the US have even the slightest jurisdiction to prosecute him?
Gold Age was Budovsky's earlier business for an electronic gold exchange. But his office was based out of Syracuse, New York so that definitely falls under US jurisdiction. And he was sentenced to five years for violating New York State Banking Law, but the sentence was later reduced to five years probations. Budovsky subsequently fled the country and founded Liberty Reserve to perform a similar service as Gold Age.
That alone is enough for an extradition, without haven't to even consider what laws Liberty Reserve may or may not have violated.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Where is the evidence they were directly involved with (meaningful) criminal activity. It sounds like the only thing they have on the business is that it was an anonymous currency system. By the same definition the US Treasury is the greatest criminal agency in human history since they produce and distribute pallets of money used in criminal transactions throughout the world. I think what we have here is simply that the US government didn't have control of system so they wanted it out of the picture.
The US Government, meanwhile, actively encourages illegal international money transfers. How, do you ask?
Operation Choke Point, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point) by the DOJ, has been steadily pressurising banks to deny settlement accounts to money transfer operators - companies that process remittances for people (usually immigrants) sending money to their family overseas. This is despite very high standards of KYC and due diligence that is required for these transfers, both from the sender and from the beneficiary.
What this has done is to push these remittances to informal channels - channels that have, by definition, much more potential for abuse for illegal remittances. By increasing the volume of transfers through these networks, it makes it _more_ difficult to spot the illegal transfers.
And for those unwilling to risk the illegal networks, the options are the very expensive Western Union/Money Gram services or the SWIFT transfers through banks, which can take weeks to credit.
If a prosecutor can prove that money is being laundered in support of some specific crime, then by all means file charges for that crime. But if he has no idea whether a crime has been committed, charge with "handling money that I think is suspicious."
If I remember correctly, some financial institutions are looking at block chain algorithm to satisfy the tracking requirements. Be interesting to see what the Treasury Dept does about that.
After the interview Trump gave basically promising to restructure USA debt (not pay 100 cents on the dollar to the bond holders), I changed my mind on him. I say Trump for POTUS. The fake money, that USA is printing and lending (bonds) need to have proper market rate interest applied to them. Once that happens, USA will stop being world police for good, it won't be able to afford to intimidate anybody and that is a good thing. USA was created on a principle, that principle is now but a lip service, it is a joke. Americans will have to take responsibility for their own lives once more after the interest rates go where they must be and no government can borrow so much and no bank will have a fake guarantee to keep you whole. The banking system will reform with the government reform.
This guy, going to prison for the 'crime' of trying to break the modern day slave shackles is a political prisoner and the government is the Mafia, a bunch of thugs taking down competition.
The government cannot be punished, which is why people have rights - protections against government abuse. At this point individual rights are nothing bit history and this cannot stand.
Trump for POTUS. Not for any good reason other than this - restructure the debt, get the interest rates up, where they are supposed to be and lose most of the government spending. Yes, this means no more SS and other ponzi schemes that the government is running. But it also means people will have their rights back. Being a free person is worth something, more than the 30 pieces of not so silver coins politicians buy you with.
You can't handle the truth.
It is actually worse then that. The article mentions:
The US government is the biggest hypocrite; they themselves have become terrorists, having directly and indirectly funded ISIS:
* http://www.newsweek.com/2014/1...
* https://www.quora.com/Is-it-tr...
* http://thefreethoughtproject.c...
Maybe this is part of the reason BitCoin creator's Satoshi Nakamoto won't publicly come forward? He doesn't want to get charged with "domestic terrorism" (sic.)
"She said Budovsky did not show "genuine remorse," according to the Department of Justice"
They don't just want to punish you. They want you to convert to their way of thinking.
They don't just want to punish you. They want your mind. They want your soul.
Until the next revolution begins all we can do is bitch and moan online
We are powerless against all those crooks
will be harshly dealed with
with the "law on your side". It's basically what Bain capital does. They're clearly buying companies in bad faith and then gutting them for their assets; paying themselves obscene consulting fees while they do it. Everyone knows they do it too. The difference is Romney & Co spent their youth studying law and how to go about it. Romney wasn't screwing around in school like doubleya was. He was studying his ass off to pull the kind of corporate maneuvers needed to rob companies blind.
The sad thing is we Americans are so convinced "Regulation's bad, m'kay" that we let this crap go on and on. The difference between what Bain does & what this guy does is money laundering has been illegal for ages. He broke existing law. Bain put the work in to find something new and novel that wasn't covered by existing laws and with our current political climate nobody's got the cojones to pass a law making it a crime.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
He was arrested in Spain for running a business in Costa Rica. How exactly does the US have even the slightest jurisdiction to prosecute him?
The short answer is that jurisdiction lies where the body falls and not on which side of the border the gun is fired.
It is the first mistake the geek makes when he turns to crime and moves his base of operations ---- but not his customers and his marketing ----outside the US.
..which is exactly what should happen to Bitcoin.
(Bracing for incoming negative moderation, insults, incoherent babbling about 'rights' or somesuch, death threats, etc etc etc)
Oh, come on, leave off with the irrational nonsense, bitcoin is used at least as much for illegal things, if not more, than it is for legitimate things. If you can't see that, then you're not looking in the right places. If you're just denying it, then one has to wonder what questionable, if not outright illegal, things you're up to.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
I don't know anyone I'd listen to saying "Regulation's bad, m'kay". Everyone I trust and respect says that regulations are necessary for society to function, including in the USA. Hell, Adam Smith said that the only job of the Government was to establish regulations to prevent abuse. He further said that the lack of Government regulation was why mercantilism failed.
The problems people do complain about are that regulation has become a weapon for the rich to maintain power and control. It's Government backed Mercantilism, or Mussolini's Fascism to the letter.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
The US government of course engages in these transfers itself, suitcases stuffed with millions in cash, even planes loaded with tons of US dollars deliver untraceable payments to undisclosed recipients
anything can happen if you in some way stand in the way of the U.S. Dollar, the bloodiest of all currencies.
I don't follow digital currencies, so I consider it possible that the government accusations are correct. Unfortunately, they lie so often that my default assumption has become that they are lying.
So I'm assuming that this is another blatant abuse of power. I'm not sure, but what trustworthy source could I check against? If the accusations are correct, neither he nor his supporters are going to admit it. And the government statements are uselessly unreliable.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
So true, so moo. Would buy again, 9/10.
an the way into work some day. Rush, G Gordon, Glen Beck and the like. It's fairly pervasive. You may not respect the folks who think like this but here's the problem: they vote. American politics isn't about who's right or wrong, it's about who votes. Because we're a two party winner take all system. That's why Trump made it so far and why he might be our next president. My local senator is freaking the hell out because I'm in Arizona and it's possible there might be enough hispanics that make it to the polls to vote against Trump to unseat him. Pay attention to how I wrote that. I didn't say "bother to vote" I said "Make it to the polls" because there's a _lot_ of voter surpression going on. We had 60 polling places in Phoenix, Az this year. We usually have 200. That wasn't an accident...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
BitCoin's creator has come forward many times. It's a guy in Australia and Satoshi Nakamoto is strictly his pseudonym
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-bitcoin-exclusive-idUSKBN0TS0AB20151209
And yes, he'll get crucified at the cross one day by the currency cartels of the world which don't welcome competition.
I never understood why judges expect one to have what they view as remorse. I don't understand how they get so ruffled up about it.
...Neal Stephenson is going to prison?
BitCoin's creator has come forward many times. It's a guy in Australia and Satoshi Nakamoto is strictly his pseudonym
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-bitcoin-exclusive-idUSKBN0TS0AB20151209
And yes, he'll get crucified at the cross one day by the currency cartels of the world which don't welcome competition.
Bullshit! You are dumber than a bag full of hammers if you believe that scammy bastard's claims. He's not as clever as his self-authored history paints him. He faked most of his "business achievements". He has a history of fraud.
Instead of taking what you read on a Reuters newsfeed (scraped from Ffffacebook, which skimmed it from Wired and Gizmodo) as gospel - may I suggest you check your facts. I did when a company worked for considered a partnership with him a decade ago, and I did again when he first started making those claims.... that arseclown could bullshit for Australia in the Lying Olympics. All those people who "invested" in his bitcoin mining scheme got burned because - he was talking shit about his "understanding" of bitcoin, and his capacity to mine it. He's just another con artist spewing pseudo-geek gibberish.
I know some one else who ran a money laundering business for many years and made billions. He then started two highly innovation companies that are changing the future. His name is Elon Musk and that company still exists, PayPal.
:T:R:A:N:S:
Try to get some political power when not wanting to use the existing "politics services" from the two-party system. It's all or nothing and who voted for that?
Having had British citizens extradited and jailed in America for upsetting Yanks, now we have somebody residing in Spain "kidnapped" and sent to suffer the corrupt law practises in the Oligarchy (not Democracy) that is the U.S.A.
Yanks, the World (corrupt) Police.
Glad I am going to die from old age soon, can't stand this ugly world any more.