251–260 of 369 posts
Was those bitcoins the one they stole and then put back in the wallet to respect their own law?... :D
Gov took his money and sentenced the guy to double life sentence...
an awful story...
Why would anyone hold such large sum in large wallet and wouldn't rotate it. Seems careless.
There's no value in rotating them. Wallet keys are essentially random. Keeping it in one wallet doesn't increase the chance of the key being discovered.
I'm not the most saavy BTC person, but isn't part of the allure of bitcoin the ability to evade this type of seizure?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am a cyber criminal. One day I get arrested and the court demands I decrypt my wallets. I refuse and get hit with contempt. My wife flees to Russia and moves the coin to another wallet, without my knowledge. Or maybe it was an agreed plan. Who can prove otherwise. Eventually I give up and decrypt the wallets. What are your legal grounds for prosecuting me for this further action? What can you prove? How are you goi…
You’re talking about a scenario where your wife is moving to Russia avoid US jurisdiction. You can already do that. You can move to Russia, put your money in a Russian bank, and voilà, it is difficult for the US government to sieze it.
What is usually the practice for seized money? Donated to charity? Invested in government bonds? New uniforms?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I chose that argument because that was most germane to the discussion at hand. You are quite correct in that a conviction requires more than intent. However, intent is what differentiates crimes and it's an important part of any discussion of this kind. You will note successful prosecutions can happen sans explicit proof of acts. There is a solid case against that, but we all know it can, does, will continue to happe…
Right, so going back to our original discussion: How does the prosecution prove my intent to circumvent compliance orders? How do they prove that I moved the coins, or prove that I ordered the moving of the coins? Without evidence, this is quite impossible.
What else can they invoke? Any other crimes? Maybe several very expensive, time consuming, personally exposing investigations start up.
Punitive methods will be on the table. I am not speaking highly of that, but will say it definitely happens.
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Do you really think that someone with $1B of Bitcoin could buy their way out of the kinds of serious felony criminal charges mentioned in the linked article through campaign contributions and similar? I doubt it.
IMO the short answer is, yes pardons can seemingly be bought in the Trumpian era of American politics. Whether $1B is enough, I don't necessarily know, but I don't see why the likelihood is something to dismiss out of hand.
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Yes and it took the US Gov 8 years to come up with a way to do so with mutual cooperation after knowing the identity of the owner and having a way to communicate with that owner. Very different than any random judge or municipal police freezing anything they want. Have a stash that people dont know about, no series of shell corporations and foundations required.
"Have a stash that people dont know about," ... is probably illegal in almost every known reasonable country because it usually amounts to tax evasion. So I'm not sure about this meme of "mega millionaires hiding their money is 'bad' if they identify as 'CEOs' but 'maybe good' if they identify as 'hackers'".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am a cyber criminal. One day I get arrested and the court demands I decrypt my wallets. I refuse and get hit with contempt. My wife flees to Russia and moves the coin to another wallet, without my knowledge. Or maybe it was an agreed plan. Who can prove otherwise. Eventually I give up and decrypt the wallets. What are your legal grounds for prosecuting me for this further action? What can you prove? How are you goi…
In that scenario, the coins ended up somewhere other than where the court ordered. That didn't just happen. Someone intended it to happen. Investigations and all available means will be used to obtain the coins. That could continue for the remainder of time all involved have here.
It requires new charges to be laid, evidence to be provided, and due process in reasonable time.
My point was the hard physics of it: the assets can be moved, and proving who moved it is very difficult.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’re talking about a scenario where your wife is moving to Russia avoid US jurisdiction. You can already do that. You can move to Russia, put your money in a Russian bank, and voilà, it is difficult for the US government to sieze it.
The point was to show the flexibility and control over owning your assets. Accounts can be frozen and its game over.
If you are living in the US and spending money to support your lifestyle you are very likely within the reach of the law, and the money you are spending has to come from somewhere and go to somewhere. If you are not spending your Bitcoin and benefiting from it, then what’s the point? And if you are spending the Bitcoin and benefiting from it, then law enforcement can investigate those transactions.