In countries where free expression is actually a crime, people don’t just get their money seized, they get arrested. There’s probably a due process issue here but that doesn’t mean “art is a crime.” If anyone speaks Latvian I would love to know what those legal documents he posted say the crime he committed was.
Art is crime [NFT artist funds seized]
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Re: Art is crime [NFT artist funds seized]
#12I don’t believe him. It sounds to me like he played the usual scheme, having people pay for his NFTs to inflate their value- while sending the funds back.
> the usual scheme
That's the thing about scams. You don't have to listen to a word of anybody's rationalizations about these kinds of things. You just look at the money flows. If it banks like a scam, it's a scam, end of story.
Re: Art is crime [NFT artist funds seized]
#13I don’t believe him. It sounds to me like he played the usual scheme, having people pay for his NFTs to inflate their value- while sending the funds back.
How did he pay millions in taxes with money he sent back?
Re: Art is crime [NFT artist funds seized]
#14No post body was provided.
Re: Art is crime [NFT artist funds seized]
#15I get that this blog is one sided because it's literally from one of the sides, but not providing any details of the allegations seems sketchy, and makes me wonder what other important details he is omitting. Are we to assume that because this guy has a blog, he must not be guilty?
My understanding is that there are no clear allegations, that's the problem.
Re: Art is crime [NFT artist funds seized]
#16Devastating to see a government come after an artist with no justification. Shvembldr has been such a positive force for good in the generative art space. Stay strong
Re: Art is crime [NFT artist funds seized]
#17I haven't read the entirety of the page, but I think I got the main points. The artist claims he's in the clear because he paid taxes on his income he made by selling NFT artpieces created by him. However, he gives no indication (as far as I can tell) that he has any kind of information on his customers. Does he have invoices? Did he collect name, address, and phone number for each customer? Did he make a reasonable…
I'm not sure your argument makes sense - Does conducting your business in a serious way as an artist involve finance-levels of know-your-customer regulatory compliance? Most business, aside from finance, do not know much about who's buying whatever product they're selling. Individual artists shouldn't be on the hook to do background checks on art buyers.
Re: Art is crime [NFT artist funds seized]
#18Whatever your opinions on generative art sold as NFTs, the lack of regulatory clarity seems pretty stifling.
The author asked for guidance:
>I called the VID (Latvian State Revenue Service) and asked in detail what I should do. I was told that I should first register as a self-employed person with the profession of an artist. And I have to convert my income into fiat and pay tax on the income in fiat because cryptocurrency is not money in Latvia.
...followed it by converting to Euros and paying taxes and then still had his bank account frozen for half a year without any further clarification on what he did wrong or how to fix it.
Re: Art is crime [NFT artist funds seized]
#19I don’t believe him. It sounds to me like he played the usual scheme, having people pay for his NFTs to inflate their value- while sending the funds back.
...how did he end up with 8.7M EUR if he sent this money back?
Re: Art is crime [NFT artist funds seized]
#20I don’t believe him. It sounds to me like he played the usual scheme, having people pay for his NFTs to inflate their value- while sending the funds back.
This isn't true, and also makes no sense. (How would he have paid taxes? What money would the police have seized?) Speaking from first-hand experience, there's a significant community of collectors who like and will buy Shvembldr's work.