CoinFire have published a copy of a cease and desist letter they received from Baker Marquart on behalf of GAW Miners. The C&D comes on the back of yesterday's threat by Josh Garza to pursue CoinFire for making what he claims are libellous and false statements about GAW Miners.
The C&D, sent in Brian Klein's capacity as a Partner of Baker Marquart, contains nothing unexpected other than the fact it is signed by Klein. Klein is also the Chairman of the Legal Advocacy committee for the Bitcoin Foundation.
The Bitcoin Foundation website states:
"The Legal Advocacy Committee advises the foundation's board and general counsel on significant legal issues such as ongoing civil litigation and criminal prosecutions tied to Bitcoin. In addition, it interfaces with policy makers, law enforcement, and litigants on both the state and federal levels. If you are interested in joining the Legal Advocacy Committee, please contact Brian Klein."
Given the Bitcoin Foundation has a long history of accepting scammers as sponsors1, it is of little surprise that a member of the foundation is now representing the con artist Josh Garza, a man who has built his business/ponzi by way of defrauding members of the Bitcoin community.
Butterfly Labs being the prime example. ↩
For everyone's further amusement, here's the text from the letter:
November 26, 2014 VIA E-mail
Mike Johnson, Executive Editor of Coinfire
mike@coinfire.cf
Re:
Cease and Desist
Mr. Johnson:
My law firm represents GAW Miners, LLC (“GAW”). On November 22, 2104, Coin Fire published an article entitled “GAW Miners lying about partnerships?”, which contains grossly false and misleading information relating to GAW and exposes Coin Fire potentially to significant civil liability. In sum, GAW has not lied about partnerships. Coin Fire’s defamatory article has irreparably harmed GAW and will continue to cause GAW to incur damages until it is withdrawn and/or corrected. In the article, the author claims Coin Fire reached out repeatedly to GAW for comments. This is blatantly untrue, as you surely know. No one at GAW was contacted to discuss the story before it was published. If GAW had been contacted and given a chance to set the record straight, the article would be dramatically different: it would be accurate. A representative of GAW is available to discuss with you and the reporter the article’s numerous material inaccuracies. You have until Friday, November 28, 2014, at 5 p.m. EDT to notify us that you will speak with a GAW representative and that conversation must take place no later than Monday, December 1, 2014. The reason this conversation is so important to GAW is so that GAW can provide the necessary credible facts to rebut the story’s numerous false and misleading claims.
In the meantime, GAW demands that Coin Fire immediately cease and desist from disseminating such grossly false and misleading information by removing the article from its website. Although GAW is a firm believer in free speech and a free press, Coin Fire has crossed the line with this article, and anyone in GAW’s position would understandably make similar demands.
2
GAW reserves all rights at this time (including the right to commence civil litigation against you and Coin Fire if you do not met the terms above), and this letter is in no way intended to contain a complete recitation of the facts and GAW’s rights.
Best regards,
/s/ Brian Klein
Brian Klein
Pretty juicy. So Vessenes' fake Bitcoin Foundation is now trying to chill speech with Scientology tactics, and failing like you'd expect a bunch of two bit scammers to fail ?
Cute, I guess, in the pathological sense of that term.