U.S. Seizes Operator Accounts Of Major Japanese Bitcoin Exchange

[Purveyor]

Source: Agence France-Presse

US authorities seized the accounts of a Bitcoin digital currency exchange operator, claiming it was functioning as an “unlicensed money service business,” court documents showed Friday.

A warrant revealed by the Department of Homeland Security showed a judge signed the seizure order Tuesday for the accounts of Mutum Sigillum LCC, a subsidiary of Japan-based Mt. Gox, the world’s biggest Bitcoin exchange.

The warrant said the account based on the electronic payments platform Dwolla and held at Veridian Credit Union “was used to move money” as “part of an unlicensed money service” in violation of US law.

The US law enforcement action creates doubts about the future of Bitcoin, a mysterious digital currency which saw a flurry of interest this year which some called a bubble.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/17/u-s-seizes-operator-accounts-of-major-japanese-bitcoin-exchange/

[Berlin Expat]

1. The ZeroHedge

folks are gonna go nuts. Heh.

[Cali_Democrat]

4. They've already gone nuts

With gold being so weak and the S&P going to the moon, those guys are probably jumping off buildings.

[Psephos]

17. Who laughs last, laughs best.

ZH will have the (Pyrrhic) final smile.

[bemildred]

2. Yep, money laundering. nt

[socialsecurityisAAA]

3. Economic terrorism.

But shhhhhhh it isn't PC to call it what it is. The U.S. is sending a clear message with this. No interest free currencies allowed!

[jeff47]

5. Yeah, it's critical we make money laundering easier. (nt)

[socialsecurityisAAA]

7. Banks launder money, this has nothing to do with that.

Unless your implying that it's the governments job to make sure banks have a monopoly on money laundering? Then I would partially agree.

[jeff47]

8. Bitcoin offers a far better way to launder money than banks.

If you think people aren't using Bitcoin to launder money, you're in for a big surprise.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

10. No it doesn't. You can't invest bit coin or turn it into investable

currency anonymously. Banks will however invest your drug smuggling dollars. Just give hsbc a call. They are pro's.

[jeff47]

11. Wow....you know absolutely nothing about bitcoin.

The entire point of the bitcoin project was to create a currency that was untraceable - bitcoins can be transferred without either party being able to identify the other.

That makes bitcoin absolutely perfect for money laundering.

How'd HSBC get caught? The money could be traced.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

13. Bit coin isn't anonymous, or else you could never claim it LOL

Every transaction is recorded and publicly available. HSBC was caught and fined a small sum and the banks continue to launder. Anonymity is irrelevant. No drug smugglers were jailed and the HSBS employees still have a job.

[jeff47]

14. Then provide the link.

If it's publically available, let's see the data.

Meanwhile, you might wanna do some google searches. You'll find stories like this:
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2012/04/how-to-buy-bitcoins-anonymously-in-the-us-instantly/

[socialsecurityisAAA]

15. I don't need to research anything to grasp the utter impossibility of claiming to own a currency

With anonymity. If it was truly anonymous how can someone possibly claim to own it. It doesn't work the way you think. The currency is used to buy goods online. Its an alternative to reserve money we are charged interest to use. THAT'S ITS PURPOSE, TO PROVIDE AN ALTERNATIVE TO RESERVE CURRENCIES, not money laundering.

[jeff47]

16. No matter it's purpose, it is perfect for money laundering

as that article explains.

[Psephos]

18. It's hardly perfect for laundering. Doable, yes; perfect, not a chance.

Launderers have way easier avenues. BC is a fringe option.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

22. The article says no such thing! LOL

There is one line, completely void or the words "money laundering", that simply implies the United States is ACCUSING someone of "moving money". It's an accusation! It isn't proof, evidence and it doesn't even specify the law they ACCUSE them of breaking.
Why are you trying to make it out to be something it isn't?

NO MATTER IT'S PURPOSE??????? WHAT????
The purpose of the government is to guarantee that our liberty is protected! Since bush used the POTUS to lie to the people, engage us in a murderous genocidal religious war(after all he talked about Gog and Magog in regards to the invasion) should we attempt to dismantle the whole government, since the government can potentially be used for nefarious purposes???? Should we remove all powers from the POTUS simply because the a POTUS has used his office to enrich himself and his cronies???? I could go on and on!

[Lenomsky]

23. Bitcoin is not anonymous ..

Bitcoin transaction records are all publicly available to anyone that wishes to look. They are decentralized amongst peers. you can find info at http://blockchain.info/

As for your link while yes it is possible to purchase BTC semi-anonymously there are caveats such as anything on Tor network is plain text at the exit node that's a risk as there are many rogue nodes. TorMail I can't really comment but I assume unless using GPG or similar those email are plain text too!

If BTC is used to launder money (clearly it does get used for that as much as WU/MG/Banks or any payment instrument including cash by post/hand) then cashing out BTC in to hard cash has inherent problems like identification. I'm sure some very tech savvy users can cover their tracks.

Back in Jan this year I was tempted to speculate on the BTC market but when I learned a great deal of the transactions currently are used for illicits (SR, BMR etc) I decided against it but had I then my $12 BTC's would have been worth $225 last month and £125 today. I wish I had speculated.

[joshcryer]

20. It's actually quite posssible to trace transactions:

Easy to understand blog: http://anonymity-in-bitcoin.blogspot.com/2011/07/bitcoin-is-not-anonymous.html

Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.4524

This came up last time we had a Bitcoin discussion.

Bitcoin can, however, be anonymous, it just isn't by its nature.

There's a proposal to extend Bitcoin by a thing called Zerocoin:

http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2013/04/zerocoin-making-bitcoin-anonymous.html

http://spar.isi.jhu.edu/~mgreen/ZerocoinOakland.pdf

In the end Bitcoin is just a distributed book keeper that requires a lot of processing power to keep the books going.

[Gregorian]

6. Max Keiser predicted this several months ago.

He predicted some form of taking Bitcoin out of the equation.

[Poll_Blind]

9. Notice who did the action: Homeland Security. My how they have grown! nt

PB

[AtheistCrusader]

12. I noticed that as well.

Reach and Frequency!

[Purveyor]

19. Got somebody provoked...indeed! eom

[cprise]

21. Money transfer = Speech

...but only when we say so.

[They_Live]

24. Here's a good way to launder money

especially if you're a Super_PAC 501c4....

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/421160/november-12-2012/colbert-super-pac-shh----secret-second-501c4---trevor-potter