On Cryptome's front page, the top is occupied by an announcement that they received a letter from the IRS dated September 17th granting them status as a 501(c)(3) charity whose donations are now tax deductible (archived). The date on the letter is only 2 days after the announcement of the revocation of then current Cryptome PGP keys. It is unknown if the events are connected, though the timing raises suspicions.
Category Archives: The Law
Judge Dismisses Charges Against Kentucky Drone Shooter
WDRB reports that Judge Rebecca Ward has dismissed all charges (archived) against the Kentucky Man who shot down a drone in defense of his property this July.
EU Court Rules Bitcoin Above VAT
Yesterday the EU Court of Justice relased a ruling (archived) stating that transactions exchanging Bitcoin for fiat currency are exempt from the VAT (Value Added Tax). This puts Bitcoin exchange transactions in the same VAT exempt class as exchanges between other currencies or similar financial instruments.
Ethereum Bet Update
The bet over Ethereum's ability to make it out of 2015 alive previously covered on Qntra has climbed to more than 209 Bitcoin in total wagers. The odds have shifted with 35% of the wagers now predicting Ethereum's demise while 65% largely in early wagers stands hoping Ethereum just might have a future. Since September 25th only 1.45807 Bitcoin in new bets have come in in favor of Ethereum. At present Ethereum is trading around 0.0016 Bitcoin per Ether token a in a substantial and sustained decline from their peak price in August. Further bad news came for Ethereum near the end of September when Buterin revealed his foundation backing Ethereum was spending at a rate that would leave it insolvent.
Operation Cyber Juice: Police and Their Favorite Drug of Abuse, Part 1
Back in September the Drug Enforcement Agency announced an action dubbed "Operation Cyber Juice" involving the bust of a handful of underground labs compounding imported raw anabolic steroid materials into oral and injectable preparations suitable for end users. Also busted were a number of distributors including persons dealing steroids at a LA Fitness club Franchise and at a Juice bar (archived). At least as interesting though, not very surprising is the number of underground labs and clearnet internet vendors who were not busted despite publicly declaring a presence in the United States. Continue reading
78 Months in Prison for Carl Mark Force IV
In today's sentencing Carl Mark Force IV received a bit of leniency over the 87 months imprisonment recommended by the prosecution. The judge simply flipped the digits relieving him with a sentence of only 78 months.
Carl Mark Force IV To Be Sentenced Monday, Prosecutors Request 87 Months Imprisonment
Insubordinate United States Government Drug Enforcement Agent Carl Mark Force IV will be sentenced at a hearing on Monday. Reports are that Prosecutors are only requesting a sentence of 7 years and 3 months of imprisonment for Force IV who committed crimes against the United States Government as opposed to Ulbricht's life sentence for simply seeking the freedom to act outside of the United States Government. Force IV announced his intention to plea guilty back in June.
Uber Provides Alibi for Armed Robbery
The advent of unmarked "sharing economy" taxi cabs is providing a new alibi for getaway drivers and accomplices of armed robberies, reports confirm (archived). Continue reading
AP: Hillary Clinton Horrible Sysadmin, Had RDP Open
According to the Associated Press, Hillary Clinton's private email server ran with ports for the Remote Desktop Protocol and other unsecured services open to the public internet (archived). Hillary's sysadmin qualifications had been questioned before when she chose Microsoft Exchange as an email server and when she requested over email a book on the subject of deleting email. It is becoming clear that Hillary Clinton is grossly under qualified to operate technology at an infrastructure level.
Darknet Firearms Seller Pleads Guilty
According to WOOD News in Central Michigan, the local United States prosecutor's office managed to hook allege darknet firearms dealer Ben Cance into entering a guilty plea on charges related to international firearms trafficking and money laundering (archived). Prosecutors secured Cance's plea and his cooperation in other investigations by dropping charges of "machine gun possession" against Cance. The Judge allowed Cance's release on bond to continue so he could continue collaborating with prosecutors and inform on his past customers some of which are alleged to be in the United Kingdom and Poland. The 30 year old Cance is set to be sentenced by Judge Robert Holmes Bell on January 15th in the Grand Rapids United States District Court.