11–20 of 62 posts
Many of the largest banks in the world launder much greater sums and get away with the lightest slap on the wrist. Wherever money changes hands you will find ethically challenged people making a profit. Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/gangster-bankers-t...
> LR's most basic criminal offense is simple: It didn't know or want to know the identities of its clients. They allowed people to transfer big sums of money without checking their identification. That this is a crime disgusts me. I should be able to do whatever I want with my money without anyone knowing who I am. That's how it worked up to the past century.
> LR's most basic criminal offense is simple: It didn't know or want to know the identities of its clients. They allowed people to transfer big sums of money without checking their identification. That this is a crime disgusts me. I should be able to do whatever I want with my money without anyone knowing who I am. That's how it worked up to the past century.
For all things in life: cui bono. Illegal operations (the vast majority of which are doing tremendous damage to society) stand to gain the most from anonymous money exchanges. So that's who end up using the service.
So even die hard libertarians who value personal freedom such as anonymity a great deal have to acknowledge that the real life consequences of exchanges like Liberty Reserve are a net negative to society. Leading to less bottom line Freedom compared to the current situation where society tries to make life difficult for gangsters and enterprises that harm us all.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The crime isn't transferring the money. The law applies to the payment processor, who profits from often criminal activity.
Operating a medium of trade for profit that others use consensually shouldn't be illegal. The act of people trading value consensually also shouldn't be illegal. The parent post is likely affirming both of these positions.
> LR's most basic criminal offense is simple: It didn't know or want to know the identities of its clients. They allowed people to transfer big sums of money without checking their identification. That this is a crime disgusts me. I should be able to do whatever I want with my money without anyone knowing who I am. That's how it worked up to the past century.
> LR's most basic criminal offense is simple: It didn't know or want to know the identities of its clients. They allowed people to transfer big sums of money without checking their identification. That this is a crime disgusts me. I should be able to do whatever I want with my money without anyone knowing who I am. That's how it worked up to the past century.
Societies that learn to solve problems -- what some people see as problems -- by using violence and the threat thereof (i.e. law) will, of course, be societies that have a propensity to engineer even the tritest of cultural aspects they want to change by using more violence.
> LR's most basic criminal offense is simple: It didn't know or want to know the identities of its clients. They allowed people to transfer big sums of money without checking their identification. That this is a crime disgusts me. I should be able to do whatever I want with my money without anyone knowing who I am. That's how it worked up to the past century.
Agreed. The entire concept of "financial crimes" has only been applied in a widespread manner with the advent of the war on drugs, which many of us oppose for a variety of very valid reasons.
While "financial crimes" are a key part of the drug war now, their primary use has been to attack the kind of organized crime that turned New York into Gotham City in the 1970's.
Watch the movie Donnie Brasco and also the various documentaries about the Mob Commission Trial. National Geographic has some good material here: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/inside-the-ame....
Many of the largest banks in the world launder much greater sums and get away with the lightest slap on the wrist. Wherever money changes hands you will find ethically challenged people making a profit. Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/gangster-bankers-t...
Seems like Liberty Reserve just wasn't big enough to protect itself. If they had been bank sized they could just pay a few fines every now and then and continue to operate: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18880269
> LR's most basic criminal offense is simple: It didn't know or want to know the identities of its clients. They allowed people to transfer big sums of money without checking their identification. That this is a crime disgusts me. I should be able to do whatever I want with my money without anyone knowing who I am. That's how it worked up to the past century.
Umm, no, you shouldn't be able to do everything you want with your money. A payment processor has a fiduciary duty for its customers. So if you are sending $100,000 to Nigeria to pay for puppies, the Payment processor better stop this transaction to protect you form being scammed. Now maybe you are smart and savvy enough to be not scammed but an average joe isn't. There are many rules in the payment industry but KYC…
http://blogs.aljazeera.com/blog/americas/face-human-traffick...