Shady ICO Issuers Are Taking 'Bags of Cash' To Border, US Says (bloomberg.com)
A top financial regulator gave a strong warning this week that U.S. scrutiny of initial coin offerings is just getting started. From a report: Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton, speaking at a conference in New York, said companies raising money through digital-token sales shouldn't have any illusions that the government will treat them differently than firms participating in traditional stock offerings. He added that the market deserves close attention because the SEC has already seen examples of fraudsters fleeing the country after persuading U.S. investors to back their ICOs. "I am not going to change the way we approach the offering and trading of securities as a result of the fact that you put it in the form of a token," Clayton said at the Sandler O'Neill Global Exchange and Brokerage Conference. "I'm protecting the integrity of the market. The behavior we see in this is pretty bad. We've got guys with bags of cash headed to the border. That's not our securities market."
Everyone has a scam but me. Bastards!!
Shady ICO fraudsters are taking bags of cash across the border exactly where now? That sounds risky, somebody might steal their bags.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
So much for "free market".
Can someone point me towards some info? TIA.
Send this as an anonymous letter to each company raising money, and see what then happens ...
So the regulators are just now waking up to the fact that this ICO explosion is almost entirely scams and money laundering? Are they going to take another two years to actually start prosecuting? This whole situation is completely ridiculous and the government has been sitting on the sidelines going "this is fine".
I read the internet for the articles.
There's a guy in my office whose name is Bill, but he goes by Fun Size. Anyway, Fun Size says a lot of stuff about block chain and ICOs and I usually agree with him. The other day he was telling me that block chains are better than the round ones because he doesn't believe in cutting corners.
The Powerlineblog guys have been running a series of posts about the state of Minnesota getting scammed on reimbursements for phony child care services and cash getting shipped out in bags back to the home countries of the immigrants who are bilking the system. They say it's gotten so bad that people are buying "shares" of fake child care providers in order to participate in the looting, and Minnesota Bureau of Investigation is busily investigating and indicting people.
Ether was introduced with an ICO.
So was it a security? Or "gas" for a crypto-contract platform?
Was it a scam? Probably not.
How will government decide which tokens are securities vs some functional thing or (attempted) currency, e.g. what about stable coins?
Is it going to be arbitrary, with a few grandfathered lucky winners that got through before the regulations, or are the regulations going to be updated to handle the subtleties of the crypto-token economy? I mean bitcoins are tokens just as much as anything else is; that is, a unique and hard to forge bitstring with some external respresentational significance?
What should the principles and distinctions for regulation really be?
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Bitcoin is not much better than some guy fleeing to Mexico with your money.
Are (any) fiat-currency and (any) cryptocurrency really equivalent, as cryptocurrency fans claim?
For example, US Dollar and Bitcoin are really equals?
The example is cherry picked to try and make your case. No, I don't think they are really equals...
But you started with the more generic concept asking if ANY fiat-currency and crypto-curency are equal.
Well then, please explain to use why you think Bitcoin is inferior to the Venezuelan bolivar...
The truth is that some crypto-currencies are very much worth more than fiat-currencies, and are substantially more stable.
The truth is that fiat currencies at this point operate almost as much on shared belief as any crypto-currency.
The truth is that fiat and major crypto currencies are all backed up to one degree or another by large holders of same, who will not let the value fall below a certain amount... it is weaker crypto (and real) currencies that lack that backing that become scams and disasters.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Financial companies are only allowed to defraud the public insofar as they support political campaigns. Plain old fraud will not be tolerated!
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton, speaking at a conference in New York, said that random dudes raising money through digital-token sales shouldn't have any illusions that the government will treat them differently than firms participating in traditional pyramid schemes. He added that the market deserves close attention because the SEC has already seen examples of fraudsters fleeing the country after persuading random internet morons to give them money.
"I'm protecting the integrity of the market. The behavior we see in this is pretty bad. We've got guys with bags of cash headed to the border. That's not our securities market."
Uh huh, sure. True securities market guys would never head to the border with bags of cash. They fly to the Caymans or Panama after wiring the money there. Duh.
See subject: Tell me your REAL name, address & phone # so we can meet in person to settle this face to face/man to man you "not man" weasel.
OK?
APK
P.S.=> Pray to God I never find out who & where you are... apk
Why -1? That's pure gold!