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Shady ICO Issuers Are Taking 'Bags of Cash' To Border, US Says (bloomberg.com)

Posted by msmash on from the of-course-they-are dept.

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."

22 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Everyone has a scam but me. by registrations_suck · · Score: 4, Funny

    Everyone has a scam but me. Bastards!!

    1. Re:Everyone has a scam but me. by PPH · · Score: 1

      Most people want either less corruption or more of a chance to participate in it.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  2. lolsaywatnow? by Thud457 · · Score: 2

    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

    1. Re:lolsaywatnow? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      So the wall is not finished yet?
      That sounds really bad!

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  3. How did I miss the Shady ICO? by olsmeister · · Score: 1

    Can someone point me towards some info? TIA.

  4. Flee at once, all is discovered! by LordHighExecutioner · · Score: 1

    Send this as an anonymous letter to each company raising money, and see what then happens ...

  5. Day late and a dollar short by jandrese · · Score: 4

    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.
    1. Re:Day late and a dollar short by iggymanz · · Score: 2

      only stupid people fell for them. just like only stupid people *invest* in bitcoin. serves them right

    2. Re:Day late and a dollar short by The+Cynical+Critic · · Score: 1

      When haven't regulators, at least in the U.S, been late to truly wake up to something new? Loads of companies out there literally rely on regulators being asleep at the wheel, probably the best known examples are "ride sharing" companies like Uber and the whole payday loan industry.

      --
      "Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it."
  6. Bags of cash from Minnesota too by John+Jorsett · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Bags of cash from Minnesota too by judoguy · · Score: 1

      Almost entirely Somali, though this report doesn't mention that: http://m.startribune.com//minn...

      --
      Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
    2. Re:Bags of cash from Minnesota too by The+Cynical+Critic · · Score: 1

      He didn't even mention the race of the perpetrators and all races commit some form of fraud so I have a hard time understanding what's so racist about bringing up child care fraud. Are we operating on some kind of "close enough" logic where if the perpetrators of a crime skew too much to a particular race talking about even with the race component removed is somehow racist?

      --
      "Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it."
    3. Re:Bags of cash from Minnesota too by The+Cynical+Critic · · Score: 1

      Right... Please refrain from speaking your mind on matters like this is future.

      --
      "Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it."
  7. Every ICO tarred with same brush? by presidenteloco · · Score: 1, Insightful

    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?
    1. Re:Every ICO tarred with same brush? by sexconker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Every ICO is a scam.

    2. Re:Every ICO tarred with same brush? by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      I'm also wondering where he sees a "stable coin" maybe doge?(lol)

    3. Re:Every ICO tarred with same brush? by Pinky's+Brain · · Score: 1

      Ether would have been better suited to crowdfunding, promising development milestones together with the coins for funding levels.

  8. Re:Perspective by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    Bitcoin is stable enough for all your money laundering needs.

    IMHO only a fool invests in bitcoin, that's not what it's for. It's _purpose_ is to evade capital controls. In and out, in under a day. Fuck the feds.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  9. Re:Perspective by sexconker · · Score: 1

    This isn't about Bitcoin. This is about shitty "ICO" scams. These almost all run on Ethereum, because the network is designed to allow "smart contracts" and there are turn key solutions for rolling your own ICO and setting up a shiny but hollow website for it.

    Someone gives you Ethereum. You give them your new, worthless coin. You promise you're going place, you're doing things, etc., and that investors in your ICO will soon be able to go to those places with you and to do those things with you.

    A few months later, when suckers stop hopping on, you shut it all down. The only place you go is away and the only thing you do is take all the Ethereum with you. The suckers who traded Ethereum for your worthless shit are left holding the bag while you're free to sell that Ethereum for USD.

    I can't even name a single ICO running on top of Ethereum that hasn't played out exactly as described above.

  10. Re:Perspective by mbkennel · · Score: 1

    "Someone gives you Ethereum. You give them your new, worthless coin. You promise you're going place, you're doing things, etc., and that investors in your ICO will soon be able to go to those places with you and to do those things with you.

    A few months later, when suckers stop hopping on, you shut it all down. The only place you go is away and the only thing you do is take all the Ethereum with you. The suckers who traded Ethereum for your worthless shit are left holding the bag while you're free to sell that Ethereum for USD.

    I can't even name a single ICO running on top of Ethereum that hasn't played out exactly as described above."

    s/Ethereum/Dollars/g
    s/coin/shares/g
    s/2018/1999/g

  11. Take the bags to Capitol Hill, not the border. by shess · · Score: 1

    Financial companies are only allowed to defraud the public insofar as they support political campaigns. Plain old fraud will not be tolerated!

  12. Re:Protect The Gambling Den At All Costs by PPH · · Score: 1

    [Stops you at door] Where do you think you are going with your winnings, buddy? Aren't you going to give us a chance to win some back?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.