Tag: news

The US crackdown on Bitcoin has been long in coming, with ebbs and flows of enforcement as regulators have been unsure exactly how to proceed with dismantling the digital fiat alternative. This morning the ebb became a rising tide, after U.S. prosecutors announced charges against two men operating Bitcoin exchange businesses for attempting to sell $1 million worth of Bitcoin to users of the underground black market website Silk Road, which was shut down by authorities in September.

Reuters reports that the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan said in a statement that authorities arrested Charlie Schrem, chief executive officer of the exchange BitInstant.com, on Sunday and Robert Faiella, who ran an underground Bitcoin exchange called BTCKing, on Monday. The two were charged with conspiring to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Schrem is also vice president of the main Bitcoin-focused trade group, the Bitcoin Foundation, according to the foundation’s website and Schrem’s LinkedIn profile.

Some details from the charge against the defendants:

Federal prosecutors charged Faiella, 52, and Shrem, 24, with engaging in a scheme to sell more than $1 million of Bitcoins to users of Silk Road. Each defendant was charged with conspiring to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. They are additionally charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, which has a max sentence of five years in prison.

 

The U.S. also charged Shrem with violating the Bank Secrecy Act by “willfully failing” to file suspicious activity reports on Faiella’s questionable transactions. This charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

 

In addition to the Manhattan U.S. Attorney, the charges were announced by the Drug Enforcement Agency and the criminal investigation division of the Internal Revenue Service.

 

“Hiding behind their computers, both defendants are charged with knowingly contributing to and facilitating anonymous drug sales, earning substantial profits along the way,” said DEA acting special-agent-in-charge James Hunt.

 

Schrem was apprehended by authorities at JFK International Airport in New York on Sunday and is set to appear in federal court in Manhattan later on Monday. Faiella was arrested at his Cape Coral, Fla., home on Monday and is expected to appear in federal court in the Middle District of Florida.

 

The court documents allege Faiella operated an underground Bitcoin exchange on the Silk Road website between December 2011 and October 2013 that sold the crypto currency to users who wanted to buy illegal drugs on the site. After receiving orders, he filled them through a New York company designed to enable customers to exchange cash for Bitcoins anonymously, the U.S. alleges.

 

Shrem served as the New York Bitcoin company’s CEO during much of that timeframe and was “fully aware that Silk Road was a drug-trafficking website” and that Faiella was operating an exchange service for Silk Road users, the documents say.

 

Prosecutors say Shrem still did business with Faiella to maintain a “lucrative source” of revenue. He personally processed Faiella’s orders, gave him discounts on high-volume transactions, failed to file a single suspicious activity report and even helped Faiella “circumvent” the company’s anti-money laundering policies, the documents allege.

 

Bharara said the investigation remains ongoing.

As a reminder, BitInstant, which at the time “aimed to be the go-to site” to buy and sell bitcoins, received a $1.5 million investment by Winklevoss Capital in May 2013. From the TechCrunch profile of the startup:

BitInstant, which has a full-time staff of 16 led by CEO Charlie Shrem, has emerged as a key player in the nascent Bitcoin market: The company already processes approximately 30 percent of the money going into and out of Bitcoin, and last month alone facilitated 30,000 transactions, the Winklevosses said in a phone call this week. The funding is meant to allow the company to further scale up its staff and product as it angles to become the go-to site for Bitcoin transfers.

The US charge is not a ringing endorsement for the premise behind the Winklevi investment:

The Winklevosses say they were attracted to invest in BitInstant in large part because of its leadership. CEO Shrem is the vice chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, and CIO Alex Waters previously worked with the core developers on the original Satoshi Bitcoin client. “Charlie has been in the space for a very long time, and he has an impeccable reputation among Bitcoiners. He knows everyone in the space and everyone in the space knows him,” Cameron Winklevoss said. “One of the most exciting things about people who are into Bitcoin is that they’re a really passionate community, and Charlie is a passionate entrepreneur. He would be in that category of someone who lives, breathes, and sleeps Bitcoin.”

Perhaps. However, in retrospect Charlie’s biggest crime was not being CEO of JPM or, at worst, HSBC, where money laundering and other criminal activity is not only encouraged but rewarded with soaring bonuses. The good news is that one can once and for all confirm that when it comes to “Justice” in the US, some – those who deal with legacy status quo mandated and enforced ponzi scheme fiat – are far more equal than anyone who dares to think outside the Fed’s printer.

Finally, here is a recent profile of 24 year old “criminal mastermind” Schrem via Bitcoin Examiner.

Meet Charlie Shrem. He’s 23 years old and the co-owner of Evr, one of the most famous gastro pubs in Manhatan. The name might sound familiar, since we talked about this pub before, when it became one of the first establishments to receive Bitcoin as a payment for drinks and food in New York City.

But why is Charlie Shrem different from other crypto-millionaires? Because he is now a BitAngel, member of an investment group created to invest in Bitcoin startups. We’ve also talked about this group before here.

Today, whenever someone pays at Evr with digital coin, Shrem gets a little bit richer, but he’s using his money to help others. Everything started in 2011, when Bitcoin became more famous, he bought thousands of Bitcoins for about $20 each. He invested almost everything he had in what could have been a dangerous game. However, since then, the digital coin value has skyrocketed.

After his investment in the bar, he founded the exchange platform Bitinstant. “Infrastructure is what we need. We’ve got to build, build, build–financial software, exchanges, and different payment products”, says Charlie Shrem, who clearly followed his own advice and profited with it.

He might not have the same funds as big Silicon Valley investors, but he has turned into a Bitcoin angel anyway. “The early guys are the ones that run everything. In this space, how long you’ve been around matters”, explains the entrepreneur.

However, we would like to look at him and others and see some kind of Bitcoin ambassadors, the ones that are setting the example and showing how it’s possible to grow once you leave your fear behind and go deep into a new world like cryptocurrency. Because they show what Bitcoin is for real: an opportunity.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1iDGqox Tyler Durden

For a brief moment this morning – following Jim Cramer’s exclamation that anyone who is still bearish following the China Trust bailout is “stupid” – there was hope that the drama had stopped unfolding. However, it has not. JPY carry continues to be battered and that is dragging every levered-long trade lower from European bonds to US small caps. The invincible Trannies have collapsed and are now -3.25% in 2014; having risen more than 6.5% from the Taper decision day, Trannies have tumbled to a mere 0.8% gain. But the S&P 500 and Russell are catching down to the Dow’s underperformance and have given up their post-taper gains. Rather stunningly, Discretionary and Homebuilders are now the worst performing S&P sectors from the taper. VIX has surged to touch 19% – its highest since October 9th. Treasuries are modestly bid (1-2bps at best) and the USD is flat (despite major swings in AUD, CAD, and JPY). Credit is trading back to 3-month wides and stocks are catching down.

 

Indices have collapsed – giving up all the taper gains in 3 days…

 

As Hombuilders and Discretionary collapse to worst performers…

 

And credit is rapidly giving up the post debt ceiling gains…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/LfYG9d Tyler Durden

For a brief moment this morning – following Jim Cramer’s exclamation that anyone who is still bearish following the China Trust bailout is “stupid” – there was hope that the drama had stopped unfolding. However, it has not. JPY carry continues to be battered and that is dragging every levered-long trade lower from European bonds to US small caps. The invincible Trannies have collapsed and are now -3.25% in 2014; having risen more than 6.5% from the Taper decision day, Trannies have tumbled to a mere 0.8% gain. But the S&P 500 and Russell are catching down to the Dow’s underperformance and have given up their post-taper gains. Rather stunningly, Discretionary and Homebuilders are now the worst performing S&P sectors from the taper. VIX has surged to touch 19% – its highest since October 9th. Treasuries are modestly bid (1-2bps at best) and the USD is flat (despite major swings in AUD, CAD, and JPY). Credit is trading back to 3-month wides and stocks are catching down.

 

Indices have collapsed – giving up all the taper gains in 3 days…

 

As Hombuilders and Discretionary collapse to worst performers…

 

And credit is rapidly giving up the post debt ceiling gains…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/LfYG9d Tyler Durden

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/M5qL39 williambanzai7

For a moment there, mid-year, when the French forgot to send texts out to all their unemployed people to confirm their joblessness, that French and European leaders looked at the French jobseekers data and hailed the corner as having turned. It has not! For the 30th of the last 32 months, French joblessness increased. At 3.303 million jobseekers, French unemployment is at an all-time record high (and 10Y French debt trades 36bps lower in yield than US 10Y).

 

 

It seems like it’s time for Hollande to invade another small African nation (and instigate a draft?)

As France24 sums up perfectly –

 

 

Chart: Bloomberg

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1b1hf7q Tyler Durden

One of the big disconnects over the past year has been the divergence between the price of paper gold and the seemingly inexhaustible demand for physical gold, from China all the way to the US mint. Today we get a hint on how this divergence has been maintained: it now appears the main culprit is the massive boost in supply by gold mints around the world working literally 24/7, desperate to provide enough supply to meet demand at depressed prices in order to avoid a surge in price as bottlenecked supply finally catches up with unprecedented physical demand.

Bloomberg reports that “global mints are manufacturing as fast as they can after a 28 percent drop in gold prices last year, the biggest slump since 1981, attracted buyers of physical metal. The demand gains helped bullion rally for five straight weeks, the longest streak since September 2012. That won’t be enough to stem the metal’s slump according to Morgan Stanley, while Goldman Sachs Group predicts bullion will “grind lower” over 2014.” Odd – one could make the precisely opposite conclusion – once mints run out of raw product, the supply will slow dramatically forcing prices much higher and finally letting true demand manifest itself in the clearing price.

More from Bloomberg:

“The long-term physical buyers see these price drops as opportunities to accumulate more assets,” said Michael Haynes, the chief executive officer of American Precious Metals Exchange, an online bullion dealer. “We have witnessed some top selling days in the past few weeks.”

The propaganda is well-known: “Prices are likely to drop further as global economic conditions are stabilizing and tapering worries continue,” said Rob Haworth, a senior investment strategist in Seattle at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, which oversees about $110 billion of assets. “There is no doubt that physical demand has improved, but it will not be enough to support prices.” Uhm, yeah. That makes no sense: what happens when global mints are hit by capacity bottlenecks from gold miners for whom it is becoming increasingly more economic to just halt production at sub-cost levels.

Meanwhile, here is a case study of how individual mints are working overtime to plug the unprecedented demand comes from Austria:

Austria’s mint is running 24 hours a day as global mints from the U.S. to Australia report climbing demand for gold coins even while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says this year’s price rebound will end.

 

Austria’s Muenze Oesterreich AG mint hired extra employees and added a third eight-hour shift to the day in a bid to keep up with demand. Purchases of bullion coins at Australia’s Perth Mint rose 20 percent this year through Jan. 20 from a year earlier. Sales by the U.S. Mint are set for the best month since April, when the metal plunged into a bear market.

It’s not just Austria. Presenting the US Mint:

The U.S. Mint, the world’s largest, sold 89,500 ounces so far this month. The Austrian mint that makes Philharmonic coins, saw sales jump 36 percent last year and expects “good business” for the next couple of months, Andrea Lang, the marketing and sales director of Austria’s Muenze Oesterreich AG, said in an e-mail.

 

“The market is very busy,” Lang said. “We can’t meet the demand, even if we work overtime.”

 

The price for the Austrian mint’s 1-ounce Philharmonic gold coin slumped 27 percent last year, according to data from the Certified Coin Exchange.

 

“It’s been a very bad year for gold,” said Frank McGhee, the head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC in Chicago. “People who bought coins have lost value, but they are not looking at short-term gains, and hope springs eternal.”

Tell that to China.

That said, keep an eye on GLD ETF holdings – for now the biggest marginal setter of gold price remains the paper ETF, whose “physical” gold holdings have cratered in the past year. Once this resumes going higher, buy.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1cm8kBv Tyler Durden

One of the big disconnects over the past year has been the divergence between the price of paper gold and the seemingly inexhaustible demand for physical gold, from China all the way to the US mint. Today we get a hint on how this divergence has been maintained: it now appears the main culprit is the massive boost in supply by gold mints around the world working literally 24/7, desperate to provide enough supply to meet demand at depressed prices in order to avoid a surge in price as bottlenecked supply finally catches up with unprecedented physical demand.

Bloomberg reports that “global mints are manufacturing as fast as they can after a 28 percent drop in gold prices last year, the biggest slump since 1981, attracted buyers of physical metal. The demand gains helped bullion rally for five straight weeks, the longest streak since September 2012. That won’t be enough to stem the metal’s slump according to Morgan Stanley, while Goldman Sachs Group predicts bullion will “grind lower” over 2014.” Odd – one could make the precisely opposite conclusion – once mints run out of raw product, the supply will slow dramatically forcing prices much higher and finally letting true demand manifest itself in the clearing price.

More from Bloomberg:

“The long-term physical buyers see these price drops as opportunities to accumulate more assets,” said Michael Haynes, the chief executive officer of American Precious Metals Exchange, an online bullion dealer. “We have witnessed some top selling days in the past few weeks.”

The propaganda is well-known: “Prices are likely to drop further as global economic conditions are stabilizing and tapering worries continue,” said Rob Haworth, a senior investment strategist in Seattle at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, which oversees about $110 billion of assets. “There is no doubt that physical demand has improved, but it will not be enough to support prices.” Uhm, yeah. That makes no sense: what happens when global mints are hit by capacity bottlenecks from gold miners for whom it is becoming increasingly more economic to just halt production at sub-cost levels.

Meanwhile, here is a case study of how individual mints are working overtime to plug the unprecedented demand comes from Austria:

Austria’s mint is running 24 hours a day as global mints from the U.S. to Australia report climbing demand for gold coins even while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says this year’s price rebound will end.

 

Austria’s Muenze Oesterreich AG mint hired extra employees and added a third eight-hour shift to the day in a bid to keep up with demand. Purchases of bullion coins at Australia’s Perth Mint rose 20 percent this year through Jan. 20 from a year earlier. Sales by the U.S. Mint are set for the best month since April, when the metal plunged into a bear market.

It’s not just Austria. Presenting the US Mint:

The U.S. Mint, the world’s largest, sold 89,500 ounces so far this month. The Austrian mint that makes Philharmonic coins, saw sales jump 36 percent last year and expects “good business” for the next couple of months, Andrea Lang, the marketing and sales director of Austria’s Muenze Oesterreich AG, said in an e-mail.

 

“The market is very busy,” Lang said. “We can’t meet the demand, even if we work overtime.”

 

The price for the Austrian mint’s 1-ounce Philharmonic gold coin slumped 27 percent last year, according to data from the Certified Coin Exchange.

 

“It’s been a very bad year for gold,” said Frank McGhee, the head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC in Chicago. “People who bought coins have lost value, but they are not looking at short-term gains, and hope springs eternal.”

Tell that to China.

That said, keep an eye on GLD ETF holdings – for now the biggest marginal setter of gold price remains the paper ETF, whose “physical” gold holdings have cratered in the past year. Once this resumes going higher, buy.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1cm8kBv Tyler Durden