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US Indicts Suspected Russian 'Mastermind' of $4 Billion Bitcoin Laundering Scheme (reuters.com)
schwit1 shares a report from Reuters: A U.S. jury indicted a Russian man on Wednesday as the operator of a digital currency exchange he allegedly used to launder more than $4 billion for people involved in crimes ranging from computer hacking to drug trafficking. Alexander Vinnik was arrested in a small beachside village in northern Greece on Tuesday, according to local authorities, following an investigation led by the U.S. Justice Department along with several other federal agencies and task forces. U.S. officials described Vinnik in a Justice Department statement as the operator of BTC-e, an exchange used to trade the digital currency bitcoin since 2011. They alleged Vinnik and his firm "received" more than $4 billion in bitcoin and did substantial business in the United States without following appropriate protocols to protect against money laundering and other crimes. U.S. authorities also linked him to the failure of Mt. Gox, a Japan-based bitcoin exchange that collapsed in 2014 after being hacked. Vinnik "obtained" funds from the hack of Mt. Gox and laundered them through BTC-e and Tradehill, another San Francisco-based exchange he owned, they said in the statement.
You can launder as much crime money as you want if you are a bank.
Considering the number of people who failed at securing their coins, it's reall difficult.
because if he took "real" money and exchanged it for "nothing" then he defrauded drug kingpins and they will work faster than the Feds.
The Lesson: Do your crime in Russia and stay in Russia.
It's a big country, don't they have nice beaches ?
is BitCoin real now? because if he took "real" money and exchanged it for "nothing" then he defrauded drug kingpins and they will work faster than the Feds.
According to the US gov, its an asset not money. You can buy, sell and trade assets. Buying/selling bitcoins is sort of like stock, you have to note the value when purchased and sold, report the capital gain or loss. So when you buy that cup of coffee with bitcoin be sure to note the value of those coins when purchased/received, the value spent at, and report the gain/loss to the IRS. Actually, your bitcoin client software should be able to do all that for you. I'm sure BTC-e servers are only down while they implement such support for US clients. :-)
FWIW, the argument that bitcoin is an asset not a currency is rational. Its currently too volatile to be a store of value. Although they are a convenient way to transfer money. Buy, transfer, and sell; never hold unless you are a speculator.
Bitcoin is currently only a competitor to PayPal, not the dollar or euro.
Now I'm not a fan of many aspects of of BTC. The fact that there's a finite number of coins lead to a gold rush and speculation bubbles instead of a stable growth, and for all the big plans about replacing all the money in the world the system scales very badly. But it's definitely not a "currency" designed for crime. Every BTC transaction is broadcast to the whole internet, making it much more traceable than paper money. The problem is not BTC, but that BTC laundries are allowed to operate due to the technical and general incompetence of financial authorities. These places have existed for years and did their business quite openly, some of them are literally calling themselves laundries. I'm surprised a crackdown took so long.
If you have nothing to hide you won't mind if we take a look? Pass.
I think we should make everything which is convenient like digital deposits and spending for example available with all the convenience features, including universal or near universal acceptance at merchants and vending systems available in a completely anonymous and untraceable format divorced from all government oversight. Then provide the same stuff in a completely identified and traced format and let people vote by choosing which they prefer.
Same thing for phone/internet/gps/etc. Everything that the government puts hooks in and claims people choose the hooks, give people all the same features, capabilities, and conveniences without the hooks.
Just because I take a flight to get somewhere faster doesn't mean I'm choosing to get molested in the TSA security dog and pony show, nobody can be said to be choosing that unless you offer all the same flights sans TSA and people still choose to TSA flights.
My guess is that if the options were truly made equal you wouldn't find many people using your banks, internet, phones, and flights if they could have the same services without your TSA, NSA, IRS, etc. Those would effectively be votes from the majority of the population and in a democracy that is supposed to mean those things go away.
How can a US Jury indict someone ?
Surely even in the US indict mean "arrest and charge", so I am not sure how a jury can be involved.
In a trial, yeah sure have a jury, but before a trial ???
No, anyone with experience of the real benefits of crypto currencies is not going to let some law stop them from doing something that there is no justification in making illegal. No one is going to dump it, they will just continue to trade, as they do now, in foreign exchanges. You do not find $10k in bitcoin. It is not a physical object. There is nothing to explain as there is nothing to find. The problem with armchair warriors is the that they honestly think they know what they are talking about. I am currently moving my business to bitcoin because I do know what I am talking about. I would rather stop using Visa and Mastercard than stop using bitcoin and stupid laws will not stop that as my servers are outside the US. I would rather leave the US than go bankrupt. Your weird idea that bitcoin is for criminals only shows how little you understand the subject as other countries are accepting bitcoin for utility payments etc. To everyone else in the world it is stupid to pay fees to Visa and Mastercard for something that can be free.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
Laundering money is easy and does not involve banks or flights as the media wish to teach you. The reason why they tell you that is so that they can regulate how much money you can carry etc. and force you to use the banks and pay. I first looked at this when I was working in the middle east and earning a lot of money. To send it home would cost 6-10% of my money. Why? If I carry my money a plane I am accused of money laundering... Why? The government force you to pay your money to the bank by telling you that they are stopping money laundering, bullshit. Real money laundering is far easier. You start a business and it does very well. The business does not need to actually do anything except make money from strangers who you give receipts to but as they are never seen again neither are the receipts. You can make so much in the first month that you can use that profit to buy a bigger business etc. In Chiang Mai in Thailand, Yingluk Shinawatra owned a shopping mall that had a complete staff but no working shops. On paper it was earning a fortune all tax paid and used to legally buy property in the UK. The money does not travel until after it is laundered through the shopping mall. She sold the shopping mall when she became prime minister. Other people have resorts etc. You do not more the money until after it is laundered. Bitcoin cannot help you as that is a store. In reality bitcoin is bad for criminals as it is traceable just like all P2P. In Denmark the police arrested a drug dealer based on bitcoin payments. The blockchain is public and you can follow a payment to the exchange at the other end and arrest the person who receives it. It is only hidden while it remains in the chain.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
There are criminals that know as little about it as you do. The blockchain is public, anyone can look at it and the police can see where money goes in and where money comes out. Bitcoin is not secret. https://darkwebnews.com/bitcoi...
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
The Lesson: Do your crime in Russia and stay in Russia.
It's a big country, don't they have nice beaches ?
I think you're kidding, but the answer is actually "Not really". They have Sochi and that's about it. Sochi is a crummy small town that nobody would pay attention to had Putin not developed some kind of rapport for it and elevated it far above its status. It's not the main reason that Russia wanted Crimea back, but I'd say that at least a small component of that land grab was that it has basically served as Russia's version of Florida for quite a long time now. Prior to the takeover a significant portion of tourist traffic in the Crimean beaches was due to Russian tourists.
The nice beaches are in Crimea.
Really, they are. :)