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California Based P2P Trader Convicted of Illegal Money Transmission

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Re: California Based P2P Trader Convicted of Illegal Money Transmission

#21

Post by corey_moncure »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #14

IMO Bitcoin is a commodity, not a currency. (Please do not downvote me for the opinion). Regulators and at least some judges have called it a commodity. e.g. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/07/cryptocurrencies-like-bitcoi... The charge shouldn't be related to currency trading, but something related to failure to pay taxes on buying and selling commodities. [edit: As usual, comments on bitcoin expressing a non-evangelist…

Tax it like property, enforce other laws like it's currency... they get to have their cake and eat it too. It's all for your protection, of course, don't you know.

Re: California Based P2P Trader Convicted of Illegal Money Transmission

#22

Post by sbov »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #5
ve55 wrote: post #4

The part about these convictions that bugs me is that some of the people getting in trouble were definitely not aware that they were breaking the law. It surprises a lot of people when they find out it's illegal to buy and sell bitcoin for cash to strangers in the US like this (that is, with no license or reporting or discrimination). I hope most of those convicted don't get jail time unless they truly knew that it m…

Ignorance of the law is not a defense, and this person had the resources to engage an attorney (at $300k/year of income).

Disclaimer: unless you're the police.

Re: California Based P2P Trader Convicted of Illegal Money Transmission

#23

Post by toomuchtodo »

sbov wrote: post #22
toomuchtodo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignorance of the law is not a defense, and this person had the resources to engage an attorney (at $300k/year of income).

Disclaimer: unless you're the police.

Systemic issues are behind the scope of this thread.

Re: California Based P2P Trader Convicted of Illegal Money Transmission

#24

Post by tomjakubowski »

SpaceGorilla wrote: post #15
diazon wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really, you make $300,000 a year and report no taxes and you think you're not doing something illegal?

Would her paying taxes make this less illegal? If she was dealing with gold/diamonds instead of bitcoin would it be legal?

> If she was dealing with gold/diamonds instead of bitcoin would it be legal?

IANAL but surely laundering known drug money with gold/diamonds/beanie babies/bitcoin are all illegal.

Re: California Based P2P Trader Convicted of Illegal Money Transmission

#25

Post by jstanley »

xrd wrote: post #11

Is this something she could have registered as a business properly to avoid this fate?

The best way to avoid this sort of trouble seems to be "be a large enough company that your internal operations make it too confusing to work out who to prosecute".

Re: California Based P2P Trader Convicted of Illegal Money Transmission

#26

Post by JumpCrisscross »

SpaceGorilla wrote: post #15
diazon wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really, you make $300,000 a year and report no taxes and you think you're not doing something illegal?

Would her paying taxes make this less illegal? If she was dealing with gold/diamonds instead of bitcoin would it be legal?

> Would her paying taxes make this less illegal?

Pedantically, yes--there would be one fewer crimes committed. Practically, not reporting income hints at knowing its source isn't entirely legal.

Re: California Based P2P Trader Convicted of Illegal Money Transmission

#27

Post by [deleted] »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #14

IMO Bitcoin is a commodity, not a currency. (Please do not downvote me for the opinion). Regulators and at least some judges have called it a commodity. e.g. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/07/cryptocurrencies-like-bitcoi... The charge shouldn't be related to currency trading, but something related to failure to pay taxes on buying and selling commodities. [edit: As usual, comments on bitcoin expressing a non-evangelist…

[deleted]

Re: California Based P2P Trader Convicted of Illegal Money Transmission

#28

Post by tigershark »

ve55 wrote: post #4

The part about these convictions that bugs me is that some of the people getting in trouble were definitely not aware that they were breaking the law. It surprises a lot of people when they find out it's illegal to buy and sell bitcoin for cash to strangers in the US like this (that is, with no license or reporting or discrimination). I hope most of those convicted don't get jail time unless they truly knew that it m…

Ah yes.. it’s full of people in the world earning 300k$ just working 3h/day from home as all the ads say.

Re: California Based P2P Trader Convicted of Illegal Money Transmission

#29

Post by [deleted] »

GenerationRous wrote: post #16
jtbayly wrote: post #3

You can run to anarcho-libertarian-utopian ideals, but you can’t hide from the fact you still live under actual laws against such things, whether or not such laws are just.

If they really believe in their ideals, they should do the hard work to change the laws in their favor, or cleverly use already existing ones, instead of childishly isolating themselves from society and the government as outlaws. There is a precedent for this: the 18th and 19th century religious communes -- some of them anarchist -- had popular support and were able to change US laws so that they could avoid taxes an…

[deleted]

Re: California Based P2P Trader Convicted of Illegal Money Transmission

#30

Post by milk_wolf_honey »

localbitcoins.com has been on the radar of federal law enforcement for years. They routinely did (and maybe do) stings off the site to catch unlicensed traders. If I were the site's operators I'd be extremely wary of ever traveling to the United States.
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