Quote from: Snagglebone on February 20, 2016, 03:39:09 PM

Quote from: ABitNut on February 19, 2016, 12:24:19 AM

Quote from: goxed on February 18, 2016, 07:07:54 PM

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/butterfly-labs-bitcoin-asics-miners-ftc-settlement-scam

Quote

Against Butterfly Labs and Vleisides, the judgment is $38,615,161, which will be suspended upon Butterfly Labs payment of $15,000, and Vleisides payment of $4,000. Against Drake, the judgment is $135,878, which will be suspended once she surrenders the cash value of all Bitcoins she obtained using company machines.

If I understand this correctly they pay less $20.000 in this settlement? What are the odds of criminal charges against them? Because this looks like a joke to me so far.

if you cant prove a civil case you have no hope of proving a criminal case. the ftc obviously was not confident they could prove a civil case so decided to settle instead of pressing on with only a a 'possibility' of winning and obvioulsy they didnt think the possibility too high or they wouldnt have settled they are the governement afterall they have unlimited resources to throw at it. in the end we are left with nothing and the ftc case drained any hope of getting any money or hardware out of bfl. ummm yay?

Unless Judgment is used incorrectly then there has been a win. The civil case ususally ends with a judgment. Now over 38.5 million in a judgment against them isn't a small amount. Sure the 19K that nearly 25% comes from Vleisides' isn't a total loss. With Drake it seems like they are doing something. I'm not saying its a huge win. I am saying that If people are not throwing judgment around the FTC is playing "Lets Make A Deal" and going for some personal money along with a pittance from the corporate coffers. Maybe it keeps some money for refunds. Maybe if the judgment gets paid the refunds come from that. I wouldn't bet on it but maybe.

Now They may have a better criminal case then a civil case. As near as I can see they have some written mis-use of corporate funds, embezzlement, misreporting income, and also I would bet you could RICO some folks for the Interstate fraud. Maybe I am more cheerful about this case because of the word judgment as it doesn't indicate a hope but an order for those funds to be turned over. The thing is I do still expect based on what seized information we already have seen that there is a case to be made for more then a few criminal infractions. Maybe RICO is over the top. I'm not sure though. I think they have enough to prove a criminal conspiracy to defraud among the management. Heck its not legal to have board of directors members holding all the management positions. That would be what I was able to find. I wish I had a link to the information though. I have a great deal of confidence in the criminal aspects of this case.