Quote from: wachtwoord on July 23, 2013, 10:57:45 PM

Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on July 23, 2013, 10:50:10 PM

Quote from: wachtwoord on July 23, 2013, 09:35:40 PM

Quote from: Chaang Noi (Goat) ช้างน้อย on July 23, 2013, 09:28:59 PM

Pretty sure in texas they cant take his house. Also this is only the sec and not the fbi.

The sec is trying to get a court order... why not do it first then tell pirate?

Seems like they have a weak case or something. Anyway 150000.... that wont go far even if collected.

yeah, I think it will be hard to get a conviction. Still, I didn't expect the SEC to do anything.

What would be hard about a conviction. ponzi schemes are completely illegal. Did he promise investors a return? Did he pay investors from the deposits of newer investors?

That is really all that is needed. Some financial crime can be very tough to prove but something is either a ponzi or not.

BTW though the SEC can't file criminal charges that would be the job of the Justice Dept. Of course the SEC can hand over everything they have to them.

If investments were made in US Dollars it would be far easier to prove he actually received the money, the pseudo anonymity of Bitcoin makes this complicated. Further the legal status of Bitcoin is far from certain. If I make a Ponzi in Eve Online/Wow will the SEC (or the justice department) prosecute me as well?

Well per the press release he deposited 150,000 BTC on an exchange and then lost about half in day trading and then transfered ~$150K worth (USD) into a checking account. If necessary getting the records of the exchange to obtain his deposit addresses wouldn't be very difficult.

Investors BTC ---> Ponzi ---> His Exchange Account ----> USD in his checking account.