FTX: Kids Round-tripping in Crypto-land

Tweet Another crypto company bit the dust early this week, and with it, up to US$10 billion in customer money evaporated. BlockFi was a digital currency exchange, deposit-taking institution, and lender. BlockFi also issued and sold securities. It was not government-registered to provide any of those financial services in Canada. In early 2022, it settled […]

DeFi platform allegedly posts a note on its website confessing it scammed Bitcoin investors and there isn’t sh*t they can do about it

Tweet According to the Twitter account of a Bitcoin investor, the DeFi platform called DeFi100, that is listed on Binance, posted a notice on its website earlier today that it scammed its investors and that there was nothing the investors could do about it. “Ha ha. All you moon boys have been scammed. Fuck you […]

FinCEN assesses US$60 million penalty against owner of Bitcoin mixer / tumbler service

Tweet US$60 million penalty On October 19, 2020, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN“) assessed a US$60 million penalty (here) against Larry Dean Harmon, the owner of two Bitcoin mixing and anonymizing services called Helix and Coin Ninja LLC. FinCEN found that the two entities were operating as unregistered money services businesses (“MSB“) which exchanged […]

Iran said to be officially moving into digital currencies with central bank

Tweet According to an article from Iran, summarized in CoinDesk, it seems that the Central Bank of Iran may have agreed to a policy of working with digital currency exchanges in Iran to provide the connective banking relationships to facilitate international transactions of the movement of digital currencies and money in and out of Iran. […]

“There is no point to a lawsuit if it merely applies the law to lies” – SEC wins extreme remedy against digital currency exchange founder whose credibility is shot

Tweet The founder of a digital currency exchange lied so much to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC“) during its investigation and to a California Court, and made himself so not credible, that a Court has recommended one of the harshest remedies available – to deprive the defendant of the constitutional right to be heard […]

Money laundering and securities fraud indictment unsealed against key promoter of OneCoin

Tweet After two years, the Attorney General for the Southern District of New York has unsealed the indictment against Karl Sebastian Greenwood, a promoter of the Bulgarian initial coin offering, and supposed digital currency called OneCoin. Greenwood was allegedly extradited to the US from Thailand in 2018. Indictment unsealed In the indictment, Greenwood is charged, […]

SEC files complaint against digital currency business co-founders, alleging they lied during investigation, provided fake business records and launched illegal ICO

Tweet The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC“) has filed a complaint against an initial coin offering (“ICO“) and digital currency exchange platform called Dropil Inc. and three of its co-founders, Jeremy McAlpine, Zachary Matar and Patrick O’Hara, alleging that they took funds from the public on the basis of numerous untrue statements made on social […]

Arizona Court denies emergency motion by Bitcoin exchange CEO charged with money laundering and fraud, seeking Covid-19 release

Tweet Krypto king sought Covid-19 release The US District Court for the District Court of Arizona has denied a Covid-19 emergency motion by John Michael Caruso to reopen his detention hearing to be released from pretrial custody because of what he argued was a threat to his life in jail arising from the virus. Caruso […]

SEC files injunction against digital currency executives who allegedly obtained investments on the basis of false representations

Tweet The US Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC“) filed a complaint in Texas on March 16, 2020, against Robert Dunlap, Nicole Bowdler, the girlfriend of Dunlap, and a former Washington State Senator, David Schmidt, in connection with a digital currency they launched called Meta 1 coin (the “MetaCoin“) which raised US$4 million from the […]

US unseals money laundering indictment against owner of Bitcoin mixing service that was used by Canadian darknet site

Tweet Indictment for mixing service On February 13, 2020, the US government unsealed an indictment against Larry Dean Harmon, the alleged founder of a Bitcoin mixing Bitcoin service, and of a darknet search engine that hooked up with the now-defunct illegal Canadian darknet site called AlphaBay, operated by Alexandre Cazes. The mixing service was called […]