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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.
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.
My understanding is that most US states have granted themselves global jurisdiction, although this is still dependant on how hard the federal government leans, and how quickly foreign states capitulate.
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
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."
The US will say they have jurisdiction when ANY American is involved in any business anywhere in the world. It doesn't matter even if you renounce your citizenship. If you are involved in Commerce (in any shape or form) with (past or) present Americans they will get (eventually) get involved.
Since only gold and silver are legal tender, anything that threatens that monopoly of money infrastructure and status quo is automatically targeted -- even if it is private currency.
New York Times ran an article a few years back ... emphasis added to highlight the shenanigans:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10...
No one was pretending the Liberty Dollar was legal tender. It was clearly a private currency, but simply because it was too popular it got targeted -- you know other the "Golden Rule":
* "He who has the gold, makes the rules"
This government abuse is nothing new. Look at the shenanigans of how whistleblower Brad Birkenfeld exposing the fraud of UBS was treated:
--
Only Cowards Censor
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.
When did they promise to return it to you with interest? I received no such promise. There are certainly people that repeat an urban legend to that effect. Social Security is a welfare tax. Nothing more. If it were a savings account, the first recipients wouldn't have gotten much.
To paraphrase what Lloyd Bentson might say:
I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Donald Trump, you're no Jack Kennedy.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
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.
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Who is 'you'? Government promised something to you? They never did, scotus clarified that government has no obligation to pay out anything based on the payroll tax because it is levied based on general taxing power of Congress. Payroll taxes are not assigned. Government has no obligation to pay SS. Also from economic point of view there is no SS fund, there are bonds but that was my point about Trump presidency in my original comment. USA economy is unrecoverably indebted. The debts will never be repaid in any money that have purchasing power, so from this perspective Trump promising a restructuring is actually the most honest way to default. It is either that or extreme (if not hyper) inflation (money printing), destroying the value of USD. Would you rather be paid in worthless currency that buys nothing and see any of your other USD assets destroyed or would you rather not get the SS but still have a functioning economy and whatever savings you have actually be worth something at all? You decide this November. I say Trump defaulting honestly on the debt is the best long term outcome for the USA economy.
You can't handle the truth.
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.
... the interest rates go where they must be ...
The supply of money is unbounded - the fed can print as much as the want.
Considering there's infinite supply, what should the rate be?
You are making a perfect argument against government money monopoly. Gold is money, fiat based on nothing but desire of the mob to vote themselves a bunch of free stuff is not money at all.
What should the interest rate be for an infinite money supply? Basically nobody wants to receive payment in worthless currency, so the contracts can be made in gold.
You can't handle the truth.
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.
Revolution begins with the plebs no longer believing the fairy tales the elite tell to justify their predation.
Satoshi probably knows that, and so he's not going to reveal himself. Especially not if he's American.
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.
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...
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Plebs are too busy drooling in front of the reports of the Kardashian's latest dysfunctions to concern themselves with things like where money comes from and why it is they have so very, very little of it.
Ergo,no revolution for you.
Would you like fries with your subservience?
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Are the fries organic?
Cash is also used for illegal things. Far more than bitcoin or this guy's website that I never heard of. So what?
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
By requiring remorse, they punish those who maintain their innocence in the face of a guilty verdict, thus teaching people to accept the infallibility of the system or else.
Kafka explored this further in his exploration of contemporary justice systems, "The Trial".
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:
No, they're synthetic.
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His problem wasn't so much the private currency, but the fraud and money laundering. But hey, whatever. I like my money backed by the government. If you think fancy rocks that people can dig up are a better idea, you are nuts.
So you like money backed by lead.
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I like money whose value is chiefly determined by economic value and the demand for currency, rather than using some substance whose value is based only on scarcity. The value of my money should depend very little upon the global demand for jewelry and oxidation-proof headphone connectors.
The government never actually told me to accept dollars, except for some transactions with governments where I have to use dollars. For everything else, I accept, offer, and save dollars because they're very useful. The government never told me I had to accept a paycheck in dollars, and I'd accept dollars as money a lot more easily than gold.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
The government never actually told me to accept dollars
- the government decrees the paper known as 'dollars' (which are not actually dollars by any stretch of imagination) to be money and this decree makes that paper fiat. That's the purpose of the word 'fiat' and its definition.
Gold is money without government declaring it so, whether you personally understand it or not doesn't change that fact. People have accepted gold (and silver and some other) coins as money based on just weight and purity, regardless of the mint. So for example the word 'dollar' came from Joachimsthal, the name of a silver coin minted in Czech republic about 500 years ago. Thaler was the short name of that coin. Eventually Thaler became Dollar and Spanish Dollars were a common coin accepted by people around the world without any government telling them to but simply for being recognized as a specific weight in silver.
USA dollar of today has no connection to any weight of silver or gold, it has no value storing power but it is accepted by banks and other institutions because the government has the monopoly on fiat printing and fights anybody (case in point this specific story on /.) who threatens their monopoly.
You can't handle the truth.
Gold is not money. If you're in the US, go to your local grocery store and try to buy a loaf of bread with gold. In the meantime, I'll be using dollars, and I bet I have less hassle than you.
I also don't necessarily have to use any paper. I usually put my groceries on a credit card. At the end of the month, I pay for it with a document telling the bank to transfer a certain amount of dollars and cents (a check), and the check is good because my employer has had the amount of dollars in my checking account incremented. FWIW, I don't want my employer to give me a certain weight of gold of a certain purity instead of dollars.
The reason dollars work as money is that people expect them to work as money. The reason gold doesn't around here is that people don't want payment in gold, and insist on dollars.
I'm moderately familiar with the history of money, and, yes, there was a time when you were more or less correct. That time is past.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
One reason gold sucks at being money is its volatility in value. Money is worth what you can get for it. I don't care if I'm paid in dollars or quatloos or grams of gold as long as I can buy stuff with it.
The value of a dollar has gone down since 1996, so $150 now has about the same purchasing power as $100 then. This means that the price of gold in constant dollars (which are pegged to what you can buy with money) has gone up by something over a factor of 3 over the past twenty years, so that my salary would have been cut by well over half in that period. We'd have massive deflation, which is bad for the economy, so the economy would not have grown like it did, the available goods and services would be scarcer, so I'd be worse off than I am now.
Money not involving precious metals is fairly recent, but there's no reason to expect it to fail. Gold is not money. Your debit card may be backed by gold, but it pays in dollars, and your grocery store won't accept grams of gold. Most people don't think of gold as money, and so it isn't.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
First of all falling prices are what economies are all about. Economies should lower prices, that's the entire idea, otherwise why have an economy? What was extremely expensive at some point in time must become cheaper, what was unaffordable must become affordable, what was impossible must become possible. That's why we have airplanes, MRI, genetics, cars, guns, mobile phones, whatever.
Deflation does not cause any problems for the economy, that's nonsense. Just because your school taught you nonsense doesn't mean you should parrot it. Depressions are not caused by deflation, depressions are caused by economic problems, lack of production, lack of freedom to invest, lack of peace maybe. In a debt based 'economy' deflation is deleveraging, reducing amounts of debt that are created throughout the economy, most of this debt is completely unpayable so the holders must take a cut, and thus money is lost but also it is liberated for other purposes.
In a debt based society there is no economic growth that comes out of new development, all 'growth' comes as a result of money printing, which is what you are a proponent of because you were brainwashed by your politicians and the bought 'economists' to misunderstand economics, money and politics.
Gold is close to 1300USD today, in 1995 it was around 250. What you could buy for 100 dollars in 1995 you need more than 150 to buy today. That's a bad thing, not a good one, in a healthy economy the prices should be falling, not rising, the fact you don't understand it just shows what a great job has been done on you.
You can't handle the truth.