Police in the Netherlands have arrested three persons allegedly involved in cannabis cultivation and money laundering. During a raid in Sneek, Friesland police seized 135 cannabis plants, cash, jewels, and assorted other items. Allegedly a financial investigation shows the suspects received "440,000 euros" in Bitcoin, though how they received it apparently remains a mystery. Dutch legal treatment of cannabis involves a "tolerance policy" allowing for limited retail commerce in cannabis though production and wholesaling to retailers is prosecuted.
Category Archives: News
Tor Developers Set Funding Goal
The Daily Dot reports that the developers of the Tor software and network have decided to set an ambitious fund raising goal for this year. Specifically they aspire to reduce the portion of their funding which comes from the United States government to under half of their total. Last year roughly three quarters of their funding came from the United States Government. This follows another piece published by Yasha Levine on March 1st where Levine highlighted that the "activists" behind Tor, Open Whisper Systems, and other popular "privacy" ventures receive funding from the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a Federal Agency born in the CIA which specializes in propaganda and psychological warfare. Continue reading
Summary of MPEx Stocks and Funds February 2015
Monthly statements from stocks listed at the MPEx exchange have been released for December. Official reports are available at Trilema. Here are some highlights: Continue reading
Crapware Still Bundles Mining Software
The uTorrent software has been bundled with a cryptocurrency miner in its latest update. This inclusion has generated a number of user complaints as the mining software degrades the performance of the users computer while also not offering them any benefit. This sort of user abuse is par for the course with explicitly closed source and Windows software.
Missouri Secretary of State Orders Slaughter to Pay Civil Penalties
AMC/VMC 'CEO' Kenneth Slaughter has been ordered to pay civil penalties of over $30,000 for multiple violations of Missouri Securities Act. Violations include, but are not limited to: offering/selling unregistered securities, making untrue statements and omitting to state material facts. Continue reading
Highlights From February 2015's State of Bitcoin
mod6 released the Foundation’s monthly State of Bitcoin Address on the Foundation’s mailing list. The Bitcoin Foundation accomplished a good amount throughout the month of February: Continue reading
Former CIA Director Avoids Trial
Former United States Centeral Intelligence Agency Director General David Petraeus has accepted a plea deal with the Department of Justice to avoid trial in a case that involves him leaking National Security secrets to his mistress. Petraeus plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge. Continue reading
Overdose Case Leads to Money Laundering Charges
A law enforcement investigation into drug overdoses in the Grand Forks, North Dakota area has lead to one of the case's defendants facing money laundering charges in addition to the drug related charges, for reasons that seem to entirely involve the particular defendant having at one point used Bitcoin for something. The 20 year old defendant's drug related charges include "conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances resulting in serious bodily injury and death." Continue reading
Havelock Still Offline
Havelock Investments, the Bitcoin "securities" trading website, which has in the past been home to ill fated ventures such as NeoBee and Cognitive Mining now has been offline for the declared purpose of "website updates" for a period approaching 10 days now. Today, March 2nd is the most recent estimate Havelock has provided as to when service might be restored. Their last announcement on this matter from Bitcointalk (February 25th, 2015): Continue reading
Man Who Established Bounty to Replace Vessennes' Bitcoin Foundation on Board
After a voting fiasco which included reports of disenfranchised voters, the election results are in, and the Vessennes' Bitcoin Foundation will be welcoming Oliver Janssens to their board. Janssens claim to fame was using his early adopter made fortune to post a $100,000 bounty for a software platform to replace Vessennes' Bitcoin foundation. Today he took to Twitter: Continue reading