Quote from: Sylv 7 on February 06, 2018, 07:54:18 PM

//Sorry if I'm off-topic, didn't know where to post it//

Dear Mr Paul Vernon, dear "Big Vern",

I hope you will read and understand my words, my story, and that you will hear the desperate cries from many people losing their money on Cryptsy.

Ill try to be as short as possible, but the story is long, sorry for that.

Today I received my so long waited check of 10,387.93 $, representing my loss of 98 BTC on Cryptsy.
Yes 10,387.93$ for 98 BTC valuable to nearly 750,000$ today, and even much more this past december 2017.

So, let me introduce myself :

Im a man from the middle class, not rich, not poor, but not a cent on my side, so nearly poor in fact.
Im not really well graduated, just abandonned college after 2 years, when I realized that something with this society didn't match with my philosophy.
I dont want to be full part of this system, I just think by myself and try to do things right as I can and fair as it should be.

Each months Ive worked, all my salary is just enough to pay my bills and food, Im not a « big » consummer and my incomes wouldn't allow me to be so.
My life is just full of shit jobs.
Each end of the month my bank account is in the red; yes, money is a problem for me even if I live in a very modest way, times are hard.

In 2013, Ive discovered crypto-currencies, I was just fed-up with this economic/bank system, and I was looking for something alternative and fair, something with more equity, something matching with my philosophy.
At that time, I worked in a rental car business as an employee, not at a high hierarchic level, not at a middle one, but just at the lowest you could have, I was washing cars all day long.
Conditions were harsh and gloomy: Working alone in a dark enclosed carpark, with not much daylight, nowhere to sit or rest except in my own old overmiled car, (which cost me a lot). Even in summer its windy and cold, all day long hands in cold water, clothes wet, even worse in winter when its 14°F (-10 °c), when water turns to ice, that was my daily sick life.

I had managed to spare 500, ready to invest in crypto, because I had spent and sacrified hours of sleep, learning about this fascinating subject and alternative thing that crypto is. Eventually I found my crypto, it was called Worldcoin (WDC), I bought it in june 2013.

Yes, these times were very hard, just sleeping 3hours per night, to get up every morning tired and having to wash those fucking cars again and again, but this time my tunnel wasnt so dark and I could see a light shining soon for me, this time I did know why I woke up every morning, because I was confident in my modest investment, in my futur, in my fate and that all this life of shit will soon end !

Every morning, I woke up seing my investment turning into, 750, 1 000, 1 500, 2 000, 3 000, 5 000, 10 000, 50 000 !
"Yes that time it will be my turn, I will soon be able to buy a new car for sure, maybe buying a house, stop working in this tunnel of shit !".
Then comes December 2013 when BTC hit nearly 1 150$, my 500 WDC investment turned into 110 000 worth, for me who had never had more than 4 digits on my bank account, yes 110 000 !!!

But as a dreaming newbie in crypto, I didn't cash out. I quit my job, I decided not to sell but to keep on holding, I cashed out just enough to live 2/3 months. Then, as everybody knows BTC went down brutally, so I decided to sell my WDC and invest in other cryptos.
I still had faith in crypto, in my futur, my investments, fruits of hard investigations during those nights ...

But after 2/3 months reality was back, and it was time to work again. A bit disillusioned, I was unemployed for more 2 or 3 months, then I found a job in the building industry - Yes guys... Some of you sure know how hard a work is in the lowest construction positions, but at least, I had a job !

For months, I kept sleeping only 3-4 hours a night, spending my time to investigate on new crypto technologies innovations and investments, but I ended by quitting because my job was really gruelling, so I put all my investments in a long term strategy, mainly on NXT and BTCD, spending all my supposed days off keeping on investigating on cryptos, then I discovered Cryptsy.
I was still passionate by the crypto world revolution and of course, by my investments -we all need money !

Then, 2 years passed, still living like a cockroach. And came November 2015, when Cryptsy went offline without explanation.

My 98 BTC worth, disappeared in a minute with all my hopes ...

Keeping my cryptos on the exchange, was my big mistake !

Months after that, we could read everywhere that Paul Vernon, CEO of Cryptsy, fled away to China with at least 13 000 BTC + 3 000 BTC in LTC worth, near 8,200,000 $ value, but I was also informed that there was a way to recover the loss via a class action lawsuit, so I decided to join it.

Then time passed and in December 2017 the BTC hit 20,000$ and I'm still thinking about my 98 BTC that were stolen, valuable to near 2,000,000 $! (my new car, my home, my new life...)

And today I received my 10,387.93$ check in compensation of my 98 BTC stolen ...
What the hell can I buy with 10,000$ ? Nothing...

So now I'm back to my shitty crappy job, broken, still in my old car... Yes, I know it could be worse.

This is the end of the story.

Paul, I guess you are smart enough to not have cashed out all of the 16,000 BTC, but still have let's say half of it, so say 8,000 BTC, worth today near 60,000,000$.

What you did was not just stealing money from people's accounts, it was far worse than that: You just went away with people's dreams, people's hopes, people's plans for a better life, and you left behind you thousands of broken existences, broken families, depressions and maybe even suicides (I truly hope not!).

But do you think about all the people who had just dreamt to use their benefits to spread and share happiness with their family and friends?
Can you imagine the everyday heavyweight on their shoulders, feeling guilty of losing such an amount of money and failing ?
Can you imagine this weight to get even bigger if one day BTC hits 100,000$ or 1,000,000$ ?

Can you imagine all the consequences of your act ?

I remember the time "Big Vern", used to post nice and friendly messages in trollbox and social media, I still can't believe this is the same "Big Vern" that fled away with people's dream...

Yet, I do believe that you could do something now, something fair and right for all of us, like returning half of the money you stole.

As if scam artists are going to return your bitcoin, or even half of it. Get real. criminals don't return stolen property. Man up and stop moaning.