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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.
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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...
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
What is that "independence" you talk about? The only independence the US ever acknowledged is the one they themselves declared.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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:
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Only Cowards Censor
Without any knowledge of this case, I would guess that it's "trade sanctions".
The US typically walks in and tells everyone how it's going to go down, or else trade sanctions.
The US is a nation of bullies, just look at Cuba, an independent nation doing THEIR OWN THING and the US has just given them shit for decades. And before you go all ape shit at me over the "Missile Crisis" just have a bit of perspective: the US has missiles and other military forces stationed all over Europe and Asia, very close to Russia. Most people, reading a factual account of the USA-USSR cold war will interpret the USA to be the aggressors. Don't flame me, just think about it.
I recommend the BBC documentary The Cold War as a great starting point. Yes, it's almost 24 hours long, but it's an excellent independent portrayal of the entire Cold War and has some excellent interviews with world leaders from the time.
The whole reason for the Russians putting missiles on Cuba was the US putting missiles into Turkey.
And lo and behold, the Russians removed their missiles from Cuba and the US removed them from Turkey. Guess it took a knife to the throat of the US to realize that it's not a comfortable feeling.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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.
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.