Bluff Magazine reports (archive) that Bryan Micon of the defunct poker website Seals with Clubs was charged Monday with operating an unlicensed interactive gaming system for his part in the operation of SwC. The charge comes two months after operational security concerns forced the original SwC poker site offline citing operation security concerns by way of the Nevada Gaming Commission and their thugs who took a sledge hammer to Micon's front door. Continue reading
Category Archives: People
Prosecution Shenanigans Continue as Ulbricht Sentencing Approaches
As the scheduled May 15th sentencing for Ross Ulbricht approaches Preet Bharara's office is once again engaging in brinkmanship and shenanigans aimed at subverting actual applications of justice. At the sentencing hearing the prosecution plans to present new evidence, which apparently wasn't good enough for the trial, that supposedly links six overdose deaths to drugs allegedly purchased on the Silk Road. Ulbricht's attorney Josh Dratel has requested the sentencing be delayed another month to prepare a response to the government's latest assertion. Continue reading
MtGox Trustee has 200k Bitcoins, Creditors to Line Up as Bankruptcy Progresses
As of the third creditors meeting on April 22, 2015, the approximately 100,000 creditors from 130 countries who were swindled by Robert Marie Mark Karpeles and his Bitcoin-fiat exchange MtGox Co., Ltd. – despite the numerous and several warnings and warning signs,1 – can now file claims through bankruptcy trustee Nobuaki Kobayash of law firm Nagashima Ohno & Tsudematsu. Continue reading
Not the least of which was the consistent $10+ spread between Mt Gox and Bitstamp that persisted throughout 2013, with the premium going to Gox of course, indicating that the Japanese firm was delaying withdrawals, most probably on account of a fractional reserve deposit scheme ↩
Windows Servers Pwn'd By JPEG Uploads
The Register reports that researcher Marcus Murray has demonstrated an attack which allows malicious parties to take control of servers running modern versions of Microsoft Windows Server by uploading JPEG images. Murray demonstrated this attack at the RSA San Francisco conference and asserts he used this same method on a photo upload portal to crack a United States Government agency's web server. This is one of many ways Microsoft Windows has shown itself to be unsafe for any purpose.
Garza & Friends: Additional Emails Detailed
A cache of hundreds of thousands of emails leaked from the office of GAW Miners totalling 5.1 GB in size spanning the time period May 2014 through January 2015 detail the lengths Homero Joshua Garza has gone to in order to maintain his fraudulent business activities.
While Qntra has previously published articles specific to Garza himself, this article will focus on the people in the periphery, their communications with Garza and their eagerness to conduct business with him unwittingly or perhaps even choosing to ignore the obvious red flags in order to turn a nice dollar. Continue reading
Theymos Complies With Yet Another Subpoena
Theymos of the Bitcoin Talk forum today revealed he recently received a subpoena to which he satisfied a request for posts made by current and ex-employees of BFL in addition to the content of their private messages.
He writes (archive): Continue reading
New York Update: Former NYSE CEO to TeraExchange Former FDIC Chair to itBit
As hard as the State of New York seems to be working to separate itself from Bitcoin in the manner the United Kingdom has, a number of relics from the fiat world are trying to latch on to a simulacrum of Bitcoin shaped in the fiat world's image.
- TeraExchange, represented at the CFTF session on digital currencies has taken former New York Stock Exchange CEO Duncan Niederauer as an advisory director.
- Sheila Blair, former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has joined New York based itBit exchange on their board. A formal announcement on the subject is expected in the next several days.
Readers are reminded that New York and Manhattan in particular overtly present a hostile legal and regulatory environment unsuitable for actual Bitcoin businesses.
Fenton Replaces Murck as Vessenes Foundation Pivots Again
The Vessenes Bitcoin Foundation has installed Bruce Fenton as their executive director replacing Patrick Murck who occupied the office on an interim basis. Fenton was elected by the board with five affirmative votes with one recorded abstention. In the recent election for the this foundation's board Bruce Fenton was a candidate ended the election in fourth place. One of the two candidates to win a seat on the Board, Oliver Janssens won a director's seat running for office with a history of seeking the Vessenes Foundation's replacement with software. After his first meeting as a board member Janssens, who won his seat with 63 percent of the membership's vote exposed the Vessenes Foundation's dire situation, and the rest of the board attempted a rebuttal of the indictment by Janssens. Continue reading
Judge: Preet Bharara's Brinkmanship Endangers Fair Trials
Preet Bharara, the United States premier inquisitor for prosecuting Bitcoin cases, was reprimanded by United States District Court Judge Valerie Caproni for endangering the former New York Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver's right to a fair trial by making public statements endangering his right to a fair trial by jury. Caproni in ruling on a motion by the defense offered:
"In this case, the U.S. Attorney,1 while castigating politicians in Albany for playing fast and loose with the ethical rules that govern their conduct, strayed so close to the edge of the rules governing his own conduct that Defendant Sheldon Silver has a non-frivolous argument that he fell over the edge to the Defendant’s prejudice."
Bharara ↩
"Bitcoin Baron" Vigilante Vandal Caught
The Internet vigilante who has gone by the name "Bitcoin Baron" has been caught for attacking a Mesa, Arizona government website. He previously attacked the website of Columbia, Missouri and has an open investigation in Wisconsin. Police have said he uses a "hacker" operating system.