Fifty year old Theresa Lynn Tetley, who did business on LocalBitcoins as "Bitcoin Maven", was sentenced to 366 days in prison and ordered to forfeit 40 Bitcoins, 292,264.00 USD in cash, and 25 gold bars after pleaing guilty to single counts of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and money laundering (archived). The Bitcoin matron unknowingly began doing business with an undercover DEA agent in 2016 and according to the plea knowingly agreed to trade on entrapping terms insisted on by the DEA agent. Guilty pleas remain harmful to your future as they always were.
Category Archives: Security
Commercial Ship Faces Siege At Sea After Rescuing African Migrants
The crew of the ship Vos Thalassa has barricaded themselves on the bridge after a number of Africans rescued at sea began trying to seize control of the ship (archived). The commercial vessel rescued 60 African migrants at sea in the Libyan coast guard's area of responsibility. Being a commercial cargo vessel and not a vessel run by an organization dedicated to building a Nation of Africa in Europe, the cargo vessel issued its own distress call when the migrants took poorly to the prospect of being disembarked in Libya.
Vos Thalassa is an Italian flagged offshore supply vessel currently supporting oil and gas operations for the French firm Total (archived).
"Security" Personnel Continue Leaking Location And Activity Information Through Fitness Apps
Fitness app Polar has been shown to leak information on the locations and habitual activities of military and "law enforcement" personnel across a number of fiat regimes vulnerable to widespread app usage (archived). Back in January substantial panic among fiatists was raised when a similar fitness app Strava was found to leak far less information. Sample public information on this app's platform includes deployed military personnel in active warzones like Afghanistan.
Scotland Yard: Facial Recognition Trial Produced No Arrests
FBI Busts Ohio Man For Doing Surveillance For FBI
The US FBI is heralding their arrest of an Ohio man after fraudulently recruiting the man to do advanced reconnasaince that the agency promised would be useful for a later terrorist plot (archived). The FBI provided Demetrius Pitts with a bus pass, cell phone, and instructions to take photos of potential targets in Cleveland for the FBI's bombing plot before charging Pitts with a single count of providing material support to terrorists.
US Removes Korean Occupation Headquarters From Seoul
The US has moved the headquarters for their forces occupying South Korea from the capital Seoul to an encampment near Pyeongtaek 70 kilometers to the south (archived). This follows a warming of relationships between US President Donald Trump and the government of independent North Korea.
US Captures 35 Entrepreneurs In Coordinated Attack On Commerce
The US Department of "Justice" has announced their capture of 35 entrepreneurs for engaging in commerce while located within the borders of the evil empire (archived). The captured entrepreneurs made the common mistake of attempting to bring commerce to the USG operated tor network. This is not the first coordinated attack on "Darkweb" entrepreneurs, but this is the first to target individual vendors instead of marketplace operators.
Popular Centerist Dutch Newspaper Attacked With Flaming Van
The offices of De Telegraaf were attacked by a man with a van on fire (archived). Two attempts were made by the driver to achieve ingress to the office for his van. In the first "high speed" approach, the van was foiled by a glass wall. After the second attempt ended with a stalled van, the flames began as the driver fled. Despite probably failing to achieve the desired degree of penetration with the van, substantial fire damage was inflicted upon the building.
Australia Ramps Up Flight Security Theater With Powder Restrictions
After declaring a "terrorist plot" was foiled, travelers seeking air transport to an from of Australia will be subject to "enhanced" rules restricting the amount of powdered materials allowed in carry on baggage (archived). Travelers will be restricted to transporting 350 grams of inorganic powders. The new rules specifically mention snow globes and table salt as a example items containing now restricted inorganic powders. The alleged plot cited in the creation of these restrictions involved an "improvised device" denied entry at the flight check in desk by airline employees for a trip from Sydney to Abu Dhabi.
US Supreme Courts Mentions But Does Not Influence Bitcoin – Covetous Bryer Abuses Language Suggesting Taxman Steal A Bit More
Bitcoin has been mentioned for the first time in the US Supreme court decision 'Wisconsin Central Ltd. v. United States' on the the Railroad Retirement Tax Act of 1937 (archived). In a decision which determined that stock options are not cash compensation, Stephen Breyer dissented and attempted to weasel that stock options are equivalent to cash with:
Does a stock option received by an employee (along with, say, a paycheck) count as a “form”—some form, “any form”—of “money remuneration?” The railroads, as the majority notes, believe they can find the answer to this question by engaging in (and winning) a war of 1930’s dictionaries. I am less sanguine. True, some of those dictionaries say that “money” primarily refers to currency or promissory documents used as “a medium of exchange.” See ante, at 2–3. But even this definition has its ambiguities. A railroad employee cannot use her paycheck as a “medium of exchange.” She cannot hand it over to a cashier at the grocery store; she must first deposit it. The same is true of stock, which must be converted into cash and deposited in the employee’s account before she can enjoy its monetary value. Moreover, what we view as money has changed over time. Cowrie shells once were such a medium but no longer are, see J. Weatherford, The History of Money 24 (1997); our currency originally included gold coins and bullion, but, after 1934, gold could not be used as a medium of exchange, see Gold Reserve Act of 1934, ch. 6, §2, 48 Stat. 337; perhaps one day employees will be paid in Bitcoin or some other type of cryptocurrency, see F. Martin, Money: The Unauthorized Biography— From Coinage to Cryptocurrencies 275–278 (1st Vintage Books ed. 2015). Nothing in the statute suggests the meaning of this provision should be trapped in a monetary time warp, forever limited to those forms of money commonly used in the 1930’s.
The single mention of the word 'Bitcoin' has generated substantial headlines, but the real story here is how far Breyer is willing to go in an effort to help the criminal gang in Washington DC pick a few more pockets.