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It Begins: US Government Issues $700,000 Fine Against A Digital Currency
Submitted by Simon Black via Sovereign Man blog,
Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
Our beloved amigos at the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), have just issued the first-ever ‘civil enforcement action’ against a virtual currency.
The offending criminal mastermind in this case? Ripple Labs.
If you’re not familiar, Ripple is a virtual currency platform that was once the darling of Silicon Valley, attracting top VC firms like Google Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.
Ripple’s technology allows users to conduct financial transactions with one another — sending and receiving payments in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, as well as fiat currency.
Imagine Bitcoin meets Paypal… and you have the basic idea.
As part of its technology, the parent company Ripple Labs also created a native virtual currency called ‘XRP’, which is the second largest in the world after Bitcoin when measured by market capitalization.
Because of all of these features, Ripple Labs qualifies as a ‘money service business (MSB)’ according to FinCEN… which makes them subject to all sorts of regulations.
At the top of the list is the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), which, contrary to its name, requires banks and MSBs to betray their customers’ financial secrets to the US government.
Specifically, the BSA mandates that all banks and MSBs file ‘suspicious activity reports’ if they “know, suspect, or have reason to suspect” that a transaction of $2,000 or more is ‘suspicious’.
And in the age of the USA PATRIOT Act, suspicious transactions are BIG BUSINESS for Uncle Sam.
Last year a record 2.4 MILLION suspicious activity reports were filed. That’s a 40% increase from 2013’s record year of 1.7 million.
As you can imagine, Ripple Labs failed to register with FinCEN as an MSB, nor did it submit suspicious activity reports.
In its complaint, FinCEN describes several of the oooooh-so-nefarious violations.
According to FinCEN, “In January 2014, a Malaysian-based customer sought to purchase XRP from [Ripple Labs], indicating that he wanted to use a personal bank account for a business purpose.”
HOLY JIHAD BATMAN!!!! Someone wanted to use a personal bank account for business purposes?!?! NUKE THE SON OF A BITCH!
I mean, seriously. This is the complete nonsense that keeps financial bureaucrats up at night: some guy in Malaysia wants to buy digital currency with his personal funds.
Whoop-dee-doo.
But what’s really wild is that Ripple actually DENIED the transaction. They just didn’t file the SAR.
So… even though Ripple didn’t actually ENGAGE in said ‘suspicious activity’, failing to file the SAR (with the appropriate TPS report cover sheet) was enough to land them in hot water.
End result — Ripple was dinged with a $700,000 fine.
Now, $700k is a pittance compared to the $9 BILLION that BNP Paribas was slammed with last year for doing business with countries that were former enemies-turned-BFFs of the US government — namely Cuba and Iran.
But it’s still a ridiculous penalty for having done nothing wrong.
Of course, it’s never about right or wrong. It’s about sending a message. And that’s exactly what FinCEN is doing.
By going after Ripple (a major player in the industry), FinCEN is trying to scare all the smaller players into ratting out their customers.
This, after all, is what desperate, bankrupt governments have done for millennia —
Step 1: Track down where everyone’s money is.
Step 2: Take it.
You don’t see rich, stable countries doing this sort of thing. In fact, the exact opposite.
An official from Hong Kong’s Treasury recently stated that: “the Government does not consider it necessary to introduce at the moment new legislation to regulate trading in such virtual commodities or prohibit people from participating in such activities.”
Night and day difference.
We’ll continue to see these steps in the US and in Europe. Tracking down virtual currency transactions. Banning cash. Anything they can do to keep your money trapped in the system where they can keep their eyes on it.
It’s all the more reason to move a portion of your savings out of that system and into somewhere safe.
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Oops.. Winklvie..
Former Federal Agents Face Charges in Theft of Bitcoins From Silk Roadhttp://hedgeaccordingly.com/2015/03/former-federal-agents-face-charges-i...
Just'a good ol' vitual boys
Never scanin' no ports.
Beats all you never saw
Been in trouble with the law
Since the day they was born
Hashin' the blocks
Increasin' the nodes
Someday the EMP might get 'em
But the NSA never will
Crackin' their code
The only way they know how
That's just a little bit more
Than the NSA will allow.
Crackin' their code
The only way they know how
That's just a little bit more
Than the NSA will allow.
I'm a good ol' virtual boy
You know my Satoshi loves me
But he don't understand
They keep a showin my mask and not my face on YT
https://btc-e.com
Great piece, but Hong Kong is not all that "independent."
It's looking like no place is.
well....since most of the Gold and Silver traded is virtual, will that be scrapped too?
will all gift cards also be eradicated?
If they go after the Chucky Cheese tokens, I'll sic my bird dogs on them...,
and they will be slobbered to death.
They are AFRAID, boys and girls. :)
Very afraid. Sic the little niche stuff and reward the Mega-Felons
Of your tinfoil hat rants...?
You're not even an amusing troll. I'd gladly hold the real TFS' jacket as he kicked your lily ass.
They are making it clear.
It's OK to use bitcorns for payments to jerkoff to Farmville sheep, or buy a virtual baby, or create your virtual fantasy world, but don't bring that shit over to real world applications.
Ouch. BTC --> USD / $ 0.75
the market is speaking. "They" are irrelevant until "their" pensions are solvent in Cryptocurrency math (READ: other than dollar math)
Moar laws - moar criminals....except for the criminals in charge of enforcing "the law."
weakkkkkk son weakkkk
They're only interested in the ability to trace you and tax you, other than that, they have no problem with virtual currency.
So then the game plan is to run all the Virtual Currencies out of business to be replaced with a Governmental Fiat Virtual Currency...
Oh the patterns repeat, dots connect.
Pay for schools and sub-prime lenders (etc) shut down so the goobermint can take over the businesses
Tony Soprano is Jealous
Just like a "syndicate" huh?
Got some guys making a few bucks, they skim a little off the top (lets call it taxes) for letting them "operate" on their turf and if they don't pay they send the enforcers around (lets call that law).
Numbers? (lets call it BLS & core inflation). Prostitution? (how bout politicians). Counterfeiting? (the Fed & Treasury).
Helluva racket ;-)
Government is nothing more than the most popular mafia in a geographic region.
Most powerful?
They are figuring out that you can't charge interest on it without cutting their own throat. The decimal point operates on the other side on the sliding scale. It's built to perform automatic debt forgiveness or render all existing debt insignificant in a migration.
00.000000000 --> goes that way
The more people using it, another zero gets tacked on because it only goes to 21 million. Right now there are nine decimal places and a BTC is around 300 bucks and around 80 million people using it. When it started it was pennies and only six decimal places. As that number grows organically at current adopt rates world wide, it will not might, will over take the international market as the standard trade method in around 3 years with the obvious positioning to avoid people getting their money out of the system but leave them holding all the debt.
\\Option C: The agnostic currency with a crackjack prize inside.
I am sure that the .gov will go after bitcoin at some point... because they hate us for our freedoms...
Sounds a bit like the underpants scam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO5sxLapAts
fonestar is crying on his keyboard.
Only for the 845th time , whilst chilling on his yaght in the carribean surrounded by honeys and laughing at the ZH Flat Earth Society comments as they wallow in their ignorance.
Really?! You can make yaghts in Second Life now? I didn't know.
fonestar don't cry partner...
You should, of all people, know.
"Saw it right off."- Del Gue
Waylon Bits member for 5 days. Looks like another Foney reincarnation. How long will this copy last before getting kicked?
Read about all thingd Ripple here: www.XRPTalk.org
https://xrptalk.org/topic/6347-not-sure-i-should-post-this-but-one-of-th...
I fucking knew it would be a Simon article. His articles always say the government is stealing money because they're bankrupt.
He's right.
rofl
He makes a valid point! What the Fuck is your point?
The government ain't broke, we are. They just sign the checks that WE must back. They just want THEIR money.
Thankfully I've been saving in tradition.
Hope you saved the star map location for the lake as well , when that next EMP hits you can sure forget the GPS location. Keep a foot pump handy too 'cos filling up those scuba bottles without a compressor sure is a beeitch.
I spent it on crack and vended food.
I was just thinking about that coming home today, what they know I have (anything in an account) vs what they don't know I have.
Very liberating ;-)
You know what does stink about this type of action (of which I condone). Unless I re-put those type of items back into a bank account, I can't get a mortgage.... Or, like I'm trying to plan I just pay in cash... but that is a little way off. After being self employed and trying to get a mortgage, it's obvious the whole mortgage thing is about getting money into the bank and being "IN" the system.
At one point it was said that the housing recovery was mostly due to cash sales.
Also this may be news to you but the US doesn't have a government. The land mass known as the old United States of America is not governered in any particular way other than decisions made up by various large corporations and military agencies. In a sense it has laws but they are subject to change depending on the amount of money payed to the contractors in Washington D.C. It is sort of government by corporatism but not exactly because many of the laws are made and enforced by agencies with their own agendas.
So I say the United States of America has no government and is badly in need of one.
Swept under the rug
Harsh penalties
Trading in virtual stuff is only for Goldman, Morgue and the rest of the TBTF. Fuck you
What a crock of Sheeeit...the barter industry in the USA is a 500 BILLIION dollar a year currency. there are over 200 barter exhanges in the US...Per the 1986 omnibus tax act. A "barter dollar" is EQUAL to a U.S. dollar and taxed as such. The average successful Barter exchange owner has given himself close to a million bucks in personal purchases and ITS not under the auspices of the Patriot act. Ouy vey.....and its ALL digital...hahahha
The Ben Bernank and Yellen can shove barter dollars up their arse holes. F them!
They are actually created the same way, Barter dollars and U.S. dollars created out of thin air..
If it cannot be hidden in your mattress, then it is NOT REAL MONEY!
If it can't legally be used in a transaction it doesn't matter if it is money or not, its worthless.
Fuck the law, then.
of course it's not real money. neither is the us dollar.
it is, however, real currency, that is really used every day.
. "It begins: . . ."
Ahhh, now that's the ZH I remember and have missed. (Notwithstanding that the author is SB.)
speaking of Treasury?
What do the director, deputy directoy, and all 3 under-secretaries [the top 5 posts] all have in common>?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_of_the_Treasury
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Deputy_Secretary_of_the_Trea...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_Secretary_of_the_Treasury_for_Domest...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_Secretary_of_the_Treasury_for_Intern...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_Secretary_of_the_Treasury_for_Terror...
they have this in common with the last permanent [and both acting] heads of the IRS, as well as
Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers: Jason Furman
United States Trade Representative: Michael Froman
Secretary of Commerce
the head of the USNEC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Economic_Council
The last heads of the CBO and SEC and the Office of Management and Budget...{and the 3 or so prior heads thereof, I think}
the head of the FDIC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Deposit_Insurance_Corporation
etc. etc.
Guess!!
They're all greedy clueless fucking bastard wankers?
I'll bet they are all canadians. French canadians no doubt.
/sarc
They can't fine the bitcoin network. :)
Nope , they will simply shut down the entire internet and the power grid to stop bitcoin. Fuck everything else that now relies on the internet , like just about everything..
Grow some ........?
In that case I'll just tie a blockchain on my feet and jump in a deep enough river. :)
The allure of electronic money is that it is easy for the government to track, it is easy for the government to confiscate, it is easy for the government to regulate, it is easy for the government to tax, it is easy for the 'founders' to steal, it is easy for the" founders" to turn into a ponzi scheme, and it is easy to disappear if an EMP hits.
None of what you said is true for bitcoin.
None, you say? Bitcoin is notoriously easy to track. Just ask CoinBase, who's been suspending accounts left and right because coins came from "someone who spent coins who spent coins that may have been spent on a Deep Web market."
The rest is debatable, and this is coming from a cryptocurrency user. Telling people otherwise does not only a disservice to the coin, but to your intellectual honesty.
Coinbase is analogous to a bank. You don't have to use them.
The darknet markets are booming, you should tell them how easy it is to track btc.
Go educate yourself.
Until you know who wrote it (who is satoshi?) you don't know shit.
It's open source, doesn't matter who wrote it. Here is all the code, here are the contributors.
At least we know exactly who Bernard von NotHaus and Arthur Budovsky are, eh what?
Until you learn which are the important questions to ask and which are the irrelevant questions to ask, YOU don't have any hope of knowing shit.
Yea, if you let a govt approved bank run the show/currency creation model.
Encyption bypasses all those problems.
"Let me tell you how it will be - one for you 19 for me....If you get too cold I'll tax the heat, if you take a walk I'll tax your feet."
-Taxman, Lennon/McCartney
Actually, Harrison, but the quote is apropos.
Shame on... uh...me.
And my favorite Beatle at that!
Thanks Pops.
Taxman, Opening track of the Beatles Album Revolver, 1966
Written by George Harrison
Govt protecting monopolies.
If something is:
Succesful
Working
Competative
Easy to use
and revolves around free market principles
Govt will squish it with guns and fines.
The govt has the gall to act like half these banks even pay attention to let alone adhere to any regulations . . . the banks WRITE the regulations to squish competition.
That why decentralized systems are important.
They think they own the world and every person and thing in it.
It is the power of the collective.
To allow us to live free would be an incredible waste. Think of all they would not have if they didn't get a piece of the action...a taste....wet their beak.
They have become so incredibly rich and powerful that it is not necessary for them to profit from every facet. Some losses will be incurred to incentivize their subordinates, much much of their "losses" are expended in the destruction to create fear and examples of their indifference and power. Keeps us right in line.
Downvote..?!?
Did I misread...??
Ripple was more than a little naive there.
Why in heavens name would they not
1. Operate offshore
2. Operate anonymously, not knowing who their customers are or what the amount of their transactions are.
3. Simply charge a monthly fee payable by mailing small amounts of cash for the use of a service and only report the encrypted self-chosen user names to the authorities. If that's all you know then that's all you have to report.
Exactly a double blind exchange model is the best banking model.
A bank that doesn't even know how much money it has.
Only possible with encryption.
Ripple was a scam from the beginning. They weren't "naive", they were trying to make a Bitcoin without the Bitcoin. So they delivered this disgusting abortion, a hybrid between blockchain technology and traditional credit. Not only was this stupid and useless, but it introduced a single point of failure which could be attacked.
I cant wait till they ban cash, gold, silver, and crypto currency will go through the roof in valuation when weighed against "bank credits" I dont even know what to call deposits if you dont even atleast have the option to cash the bank tokens in the account.
call it your equity stake in the banking system.
It's not even equity, it's much less than that. Even FRNs are something less than equity in the central bank. A bank deposit is something like unsecured credit for an unsecured credit.
Bitcoin Last Price $231
This is all gum on the bottom of your shoe compare to the shit-enema we're all going to get once the TPP is rammed through.
I don't know if Jade Helm is supposed to be a psy op, or supposed to 'go live' or if martial law will appear in larger American cities this summer.
What I do know is that the fucking TPP *guarantees* that martial law will be employed to keep order, i.e. keep the spice flowing.
All in all - if the people of the world simply arrested and tried war criminals, warmongering think tanks, etc. - probably less than 500 people removed from office would save hundreds of thousands of lives.
But it looks like all the frogs have been boiled slowly enough...
Sucks to try to win a game only playing defense.
"I don't know if Jade Helm is supposed to be a psy op, or supposed to 'go live' or if martial law will appear in larger American cities this summer."
It's very possible Jade Helm is the distraction needed to ram TPP through. Smoke screens are their MO when looking to backdoor the public.
Yawn , you still beleive that old shit ? Simple question: Who pays for all that shit ? YOU DO ! . A few weeks under Martian Law nobody will be getting paychecks. All the cops and soldiers will just go back home , just like they did in Rome and every other obsolete , collapsed system. They rely on the fear of you motherfuckers to continue the illusion.
Bitcoin BTChezzzz...
Your history here on ZH is summarized in one word. Attack.
According to counterpunch, he might have a chance because he does attack.
I knew you would show up eventually....You were voted "Most Likely To Be Ignored" judging by your post history. It must really bother you.
I'm sure the cops will take anything they please from any house unless those people at home have big guns.
As for the Martians... don't even get me started!
I have to admit, I've found that show on in the past and watched it just because of that guy and his hair. His hair should have its own show. It might get more than 177,000 viewers.
Rome didnt have digital bank accounts that the ones doing the oppressing could check from their phones.
We won't be able to break the paycheck supply line. But there are others.
We don't pay (taxes) for martial law,
The Banksters pay (fiat) for martial law.
An army marches on its stomach. Some noob general said that.
Feed the military when the population is on the brink of starvation and the military will happily obey.
Don't worry about TPP. Obama has shown us that laws and treaties and crap like that don't mean a damned thing. It should be apparent by now that they will do any fucking thing they want.
Humans have been so effective in rationalizing everything they lust for or fear that their is not a prayer that we will ever see things set right. People don't even know what that is now. We have been preached to for years about not being judgmental, that their is no real right or wrong, that we have been left disabled from being able to even comprehend it. But...right and wrong WILL come into focus, and I think it will not be subtle, i think it will be an epiphany for most, at a moment just a little too late.
A raging shit-tsunami is going to lift all shit-boats and slam them down upon shores of shit!
Shit.
zh authors are generally good, buy bitcoin (i'm too lazy to check if it's gone up yet), but don't spend it on illegal stuff like money laundering. Even zh has it's bias, basically wealth, money, and greed are the hope of the world. But there are sure a lot of depressed people out there who refuse to represent the starving masses that would bring the creativity of ripple to the table x100.
Good grief, digital currency is even nuttier than gold - and that's saying something!
What we are suffering under is a crisis of trust, and in response, rather than to resolve our trust issues with the criminals of the world, we are trying to create new ways to circumvent trust. Computers. The single greatest invasion of our privacy and theft, and this is our solution.
Does anyone here really think that TPTB will tolerate a competing monetary system that deprives them of control and taxation? Really?
Our problem is not economic, it is a governmental system that is attempting to suffocate its disobedient children. It demands obedience and tribute, and it will have it. No matter the cost.
Playing these games with gold and stocks and bitcoin are a great diversion, but they do not address the problem. A problem that will continue to grow unless real change is demanded (which we won't because we are too afraid we might lose money).
Tolerate? WE are their man-power to stop it so when we don't, they don't.
If the government is going after it, it must be good for us.
Kinda like I don't believe anything until it is officially denied...
The US is moving quite fast to make itself much less financially relevant over the next 25 years or so.
The problem with moving your assets abroad is finding a country that doesn't suck Uncle Sam's veiny cock.
The US .gov vampire squid has its tentacles everywhere via FATCA, FinCEN, NSA, etc, etc.
Whenever I wire money out of the country, I ask the bank clerk of they need help filling out the SAR just to fuck with them. They're going to do one anyway...so whatever...
Have you looked at the US government? The US government is a condom for somebody else's iron fist, and their cleaning service too. The US is TPTBs host as your flesh is a host to ecoli. Matthew 7:3
Can they pay the fine in Bitcoins?
Ripple is more a payment system than a virtual currency.
Since the transaction was denied, how did the government even find out about it?
It seems that either
1. the Malaysian customer must have reported it to the US gov, or
2. Ripple must have reported it to the US gov (but the gov says they didn't), or
3. the US gov must have intercepted. the request.
Since #1 seems very unlikely, and #2 seems ruled out, that leaves #3.
4. The US (or their agent) originated the request.
Let no transaction go untaxed! The bankers have bought the world on credit with QE and you must pay your fair share.
Maybe they can get some shadow VC to hire some kickass patent attorneys. Like my senior partner friend and neighbor. He's good at what he does and this looks like tastier pro bono than hookers and blow. You know where to contact me. If you have a need I will pass it on. Keep it short. No Guarantees.
shiney
Ask Obama how he paid for the new Magnum PI home in Hawaii?
You might only be able to read one page at a time under supervision. Within the dungeons of congress BDSM chambers
If you donate $100,000, Obama and Hillary will provide one hour of exclusive bathhouse time. All of your organs will be flushed.
You'll want to return to the slave plantation. More goodies once you cross back into our border.
"safe place" where? my ass?