 |
Qntra - Herald Of The Most Serene Republic |
Wired.com has published an interview with Darkside of the relatively unknown Russian Anonymous Marketplace, otherwise known as RAMP. RAMP caters solely to Russian customers and unlike Western dark markets, does not collect a commission on sales. Darkside claims his business model is earning him $250,000 per year and RAMP has now been in business longer than the original Silk Road.
The full interview is available here.
In a continuation of the saga of the subpoena sent to Theymos of Bitcointalk, the subpoena has now been released. Full plain text below: Continue reading
Earlier today Theymos of Bitcointalk revealed that he satisfied a subpoena by prosecutors in the United States related to the yet to be tried Ross Ulbricht case. He offered that he turned over posts related to the account "altoid" alleged to be connected to Ross Ulbricht. He also admitted turning a number of posts, including posts deleted by users from a thread titled "A Heroin Store" which posed and interesting thought experiment: Continue reading
A couple from New Zealand who were charged with various drug related crimes after having ordered drugs from a Silk Road type site, have escaped a jail sentence despite the Crown prosecutor's suggestion that imprisonment was the appropriate punishment. Continue reading
Reuters reports that an unnamed Australian law enforcement agency is investigating the use of bitcoin in organised crime. It's unknown whether the LEA conducting the investigation, named Project Longstrike, is one at the state or federal level. Given the project's scope for local and international crime, it's likely to be the later of the two. Continue reading
HSBC has reportedly cut ties with the "regulated" Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund (GABI) over concerns related to "money laundering" risks. Notably in 2012 HSBC settled with the United States for $1.92 billion related to assistance it allegedly provided drug cartels in laundering money in Mexico and Columbia, likely making the money laundering issue a very sore subject for the bank.
This week Pando Daily's Yasha Levine wrote a follow up to a post from this summer where Yasha documented many of the numerous and transparent connections between the Tor developers and the United States Government. Nothing Yasha wrote in the original piece is particularly controversial, nearly all of it comes from public records, but still Yasha was able to write a follow up on all of the venom Yasha received from fans of Tor without any actual refutations of her points. The simple fact of the matter is that Tor was born of the needs of the United States Government's intelligence community, and continued funding to keep the main Tor developers fed, clothed, and sheltered largely comes from the coffers of those interests. Continue reading
Story was retracted by source
The Irish Independent reports that one of the suspects arrested in the Irish contribution to Operation Onymous is related to Dublin Footballer Paul Mannion. Neil Mannion along with Richard O'Connor, who is not known to have a sibling of great athletic merit, are charged with possession of ecstasy with intent to sell or supply. Continue reading
A number of interesting tidbits come out of the Bulgarian State Agency for National Security press release on Operation Onymous.
The Tampa Bay times reports that Florida Man, Ronald Delaet, allegedly bought drugs from the Internet and resold them. Law Enforcement reportedly found "hundreds" of postal receipts and was able to intercept 5 packages in transit. The local paper's report singles out allegations by police that he sold a bottle of fentanyl nasal solution to a 17 year old who is supposed to have told his mom he planned on using it to overdose. Given the early involvement of Law Enforcement in developing SilkRoad 2.o it is likely that reports of similar arrests will continue for some time.