Re: Finally proof that OG is running a ponzi....

Long read, TLDR at bottom of post.

I've been doing some digging on OgNastys 2012 involvement in the massive ponzi scheme known as 'Bitcoin Savings and Trust' run by Trendon Shavers aka Pirateat40.

I hope OgNasty will let me know if I'm wrong about any of this (with evidence) and share any missing relevant details.

- On April 7, 2012 OgNasty created this thread encouraging people to invest directly invest in pirateat40s ponzi scheme if possible. Yesterday OgNasty edited the the first post in the thread. I took a screen shot of the first half of the post but am unable to find a cached version with the full FAQ's that were originally posted. Screenshot pre-edit. (notice it says "Reserve Funds: Paid Out" - I'll be getting back to that) He also locked the thread yesterday, some I'm unable to post any direct quotes from the thread and will be posting links to the posts instead and copy pasting the actual quotes into this thread. About 14 hours ago I archived all posts in the thread in case OgNasty decides to edit any more posts. I hope he doesn't.

- At the time, the ponzi scheme had waitlists and required a personal invite.

- Pirateat40 promised a return of 1% per day initially. I know that this was eventually reduced, but I'm not sure when or by how much. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trendon_Shavers

- OgNasty created this thread for people who were unable to get a personal invite.

- He was offering those who invested with him 8% or more monthly payments based on how much in total was invested. (This is much less than the 1% daily - but both interest rates, 1% daily or 8% monthly, are obviously not sustainable and should scream ponzi scheme to anyone with a basic understanding of finance. I believe OgNasty was collecting far more than he was paying people back while the ponzi scheme was still paying out. Keep in mind, the longer a ponzi scheme is able to appear solvent,)

- In a April 11, 2012 post that was edited on April 26, 2012 OgNasty posted the terms of his "reserve funds":

Quote

RESERVE FUND:

A Reserve Fund has been established to provide depositors with insurance against loss of deposits. In the event of a Bitcoin Savings & Trust failure, the Reserve Fund will be paid out to depositors, proportionately to their deposits held as listed on this thread.

- April 16, 2012, OgNasty makes this post confirming he has received over BTC250. Apparantly this was a threshhold that allowed him to increase monthly payments by 1 or 2 %.

- April 23, 2012, OgNasty makes this post:

Quote

BASE RATE INCREASE:

In order to encourage new deposits and reward all depositors for the growth of this program, I would like to announce a potential increase to the base rate on deposits. Once there are 2000+ Total BTC Held in Deposits listed on this thread, the base rate will be increased from 8% to 10% for all depositors.

Note:
Having 2000+ Total BTC Held in Deposits will also enable the Reserve Fund to grow much faster, which will benefit all depositors.

The base rate may be lowered back to 8% if Total BTC Held in Deposits fall below 2000 BTC for a prolonged length of time.

- April 30, 2012 - OgNasty makes this post after sending out a BTC.01 test payment.

Quote

I've sent out 0.01 BTC test payments to all depositors. If you did not receive a 0.01 BTC test payment, you have about 20 hours to let me know before interest payments are sent. If you did receive the test payment, all is well and you will receive your interest payment tomorrow.

- May 1, 2012 OgNasty makes this post:

Quote

Interest payments have been sent. Thank you to all my depositors.

- May 5, 2012 OgNasty makes this post confirming he has received over BTC2,000 in deposits.

Quote

Congratulations to all depositors, as we have surpassed BTC2,000 in deposits and the base rate has been increased to 10%! We also got a shiny new logo courtesy of Timbo925.

- May 11, 2012 OgNasty makes this post explaining that he would be taking 1% of all deposits to fund the reserve account. At this point there are over BTC2,000 and the reserve account has BTC30.

Quote

Deposits have been rising and I place the full deposit in my BS&T account, so it is not like I take 1% from each deposit and put it in the reserve fund. After 1 month, from the very first deposit, I've built a 30 BTC reserve. That amount will continue to rise and is not pegged to a %. Now that we have a 2000+ BTC balance, that will enable the reserve fund to grow more quickly. I will admit I have been focusing more on providing a higher base rate and interest rate loyalty rewards than building the reserve fund.

- May 23, 2012 OgNasty makes this post informing people that the reserve account is up to BTC50. (Still over BTC2000 invested)

Quote

UPDATE:
Reserve Account has been increased to 50 BTC.
Deposits are now allowed at any time during the month.
Reinvesting interest is now allowed, PM me to signup.

- June 1, 2012 OgNasty makes second round of interest payments and shares details in this post

According to the info he posts, he has now collected BTC2970 and paid out each investor between 3% and 11% on their investment (some investors bought in mid month so they receive a smaller cut based on when they invested. The bigger investors received a 1% 2% or 3% bonus based on the size of their deposit.

Details of users and their addresses:

Code:

Depositor Rate Reward Amount Payment Address
Anonymous №1 10% 100.00 10.00 1AYoshhS6VLYNWRNX5P6EWxUcrKLr16KLB
Wekkel - 10% 100.00 10.00 1LUPYsMBBAX937a16cTzMXMbnGv6pEfBPt
miscreanity 10% 10.00 1.00 1LdpVFiqFX7ymHp6AMhrNq8J9PQ5ZSLoeo
Anonymous №2 10% 50.00 5.00 18fDCUZ9wvcrMFfQogCHar3FE7E5tu95E2
exahash - 10% 1% 250.00 27.50 1KH1wM55KJe422Uun66T7RC176MLZyKbRn
chunglam - 10% 1% 250.00 27.50 1AMFex7h8b8TBD5WewZdHTqSQjMG8fiSsF
geodude - 10% 10.00 1.00 1MJK5LNAdqhyCEeqAnpMjckKaFr8NXtTGu
Anonymous №4 10% 1% 700.00 77.00 1mCJ9UpGPE8vok8StdobELZrW643tYFiF
Sturmvogel 10% 50.00 5.00 19qp1bSoi3LqQBSUVomGXGx3i6XfaHuxqj
nathantrumpet 10% 35.00 3.50 17foq9mtyFRK13cKc3aZ81SKKsZ7PSLPHN
drlatino999 10% 100.00 10.00 143epJQzwB5rJCWpQssave4UPuKL75EERi
Jonny Heggheim 10% 30.00 3.00 1MRnQVysnF9t91i5UPHsApFh4vRCvBwXux
iron77 - 10% 300.00 30.00 195TbM1SzZA9HzSaRDeKBiRLf8HzNqkGww
Tannke - 10% 400.00 40.00 INTEREST ROLLOVER PLAN
Timbo925 10% 20.00 2.00 1AYWHj7BNDwfvCpQ4rqM3BhMipmZUe3pUj
squirrelman 10% 50.00 5.00 INTEREST ROLLOVER PLAN

Mid-Month Deposits:
drlatino999 5% 40.00 2.00 143epJQzwB5rJCWpQssave4UPuKL75EERi
Uncle Scrooge 5% 250.00 12.50 INTEREST ROLLOVER PLAN
Anonymous №5 5% 100.00 5.00 1GyocUADnTd5aZRRrNLGFTVXNiyaacpPQm
Buckwheet 5% 50.00 2.50 17Ge71XYfHKFC7Lzkq7fs5RwerPEEaySqR
CecilNiosaki 3% 75.00 2.25 INTEREST ROLLOVER PLAN

- June 24, 2012 OgNasty makes this post offering a bump up to 12% monthly return as long as the total investment was greater than BTC2,000

- July 1, 2012 OgNasty makes his third monthly interest payment in this post At this point he has BTC2638.25 invested.

Quote

MONTHLY PAYMENTS SENT:

Interest payments have been sent to depositors for the month of June.

Code:

Account Opened Depositor Rate Reward Amount Payment Address
4/7/2012 Anonymous №1 10% 100.00 10.00 1AYoshhS6VLYNWRNX5P6EWxUcrKLr16KLB
4/10/2012 Anonymous №2 10% 50.00 5.00 18fDCUZ9wvcrMFfQogCHar3FE7E5tu95E2
4/11/2012 exahash - 10% 2% 250.00 30.00 1KH1wM55KJe422Uun66T7RC176MLZyKbRn
4/11/2012 geodude - 10% 10.00 1.00 1MJK5LNAdqhyCEeqAnpMjckKaFr8NXtTGu
4/13/2012 Anonymous №4 10% 3% 700.00 91.00 1mCJ9UpGPE8vok8StdobELZrW643tYFiF
5/1/2012 Jonny Heggheim 10% 30.00 3.00 1MRnQVysnF9t91i5UPHsApFh4vRCvBwXux
5/3/2012 Tannke - 10% 1% 440.00 48.40 INTEREST ROLLOVER PLAN
5/6/2012 squirrelman 10% 65.00 6.50 INTEREST ROLLOVER PLAN
5/12/2012 Uncle Scrooge 10% 1% 487.50 53.63 INTEREST ROLLOVER PLAN
5/21/2012 CecilNiosaki 10% 1% 252.25 27.75 INTEREST ROLLOVER PLAN

Mid-Month Deposits:
6/7/2012 Tannke - 8% 120.00 9.60 INTEREST ROLLOVER PLAN - ADD ON
6/11/2012 Uncle Scrooge 6% 12.50 0.75 INTEREST ROLLOVER PLAN - ADD ON
6/18/2012 cst - - - 4% 11.00 0.44 INTEREST ROLLOVER PLAN
6/19/2012 BitLoan 3% 10.00 0.30 1HshtPD1bSqH4KD9czH2fiNMTJxC6XsxTh
6/30/2012 notawake 0% 100.00 0.00 INTEREST ROLLOVER PLAN

- July 2, 2012 OgNasty makes this post. Apparently pirateat40 has lowered interest rates. The end is near.

Quote

There will be some adjustments to adapt to the new lower rates at Bitcoin Savings & Trust.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=90327.msg1004085#msg1004085

We have also dipped below the 2000 BTC requirement and the interest rate has now dropped back down to 8% monthly. Embarrassed

- July 21, 2012 OgNasty makes this post Updating the current reserve to BTC65. Important: This is the last mention I can find on the total value of the reserve account that OgNasty is using to insure investors.

Quote

UPDATE:
Reserve Account has been increased to 65 BTC.
Base rate will remain at 8% after the BS&T rate reduction.
Rewards will be limited to 2% after the BS&T rate reduction.

- August 1, 2012 OgNasty makes this post

Quote

I'm awaiting a withdrawal from BS&T. All payments/withdrawals will be made as soon as this transfer is completed.

- August 2, 2012 OgNasty makes this post. Note: unlike previous months no details on total invested or paid out are shared.

Quote

All payments and withdrawals have been processed for July. Thank you.

- August 17, 2012 OgNasty makes this post confirming that it was a scam all along.
It's also worth noting that OgNasty he was considering working to continue running his 'program' but would more likely focus on his NastyMining project. So, he thought about continuing to run a ponzi scheme, but would be most likely he would look into creating his own project, Nasty Mining. Let that sink in for a minute.

Quote

Due to the news of BTCST closing, I have requested all funds from the account and will be returning them to depositors as soon as received.

I will be looking into options to keep the program running in one form or another, but most likely I will close this program down to focus on NastyMining. Thank you to all my depositors.

UPDATE:
Bitcoin Savings & Trust is officially in default and the reserve fund has been paid out to depositors.

So the reserve funds were worth BTC65 (maybe a bit more) and the actual investments worth worth way more than BTC1,000, quite possibly well over BTC2,000. Nobody confirmed getting their investment back. The only direct claim he made was that the "reserve fund has been paid out". Again, reserve fund = ~BTC65, investments = ~BTC2,000.

Note, I have only taken a cursory look at the deposit addresses and none of them seem to line up with any sort of full refund of their investment.
If OgNasty chooses to dispute the results of my investigation, I will surely do so.
Hopefully someone will help out as this is quite a pain in the ass.

TLDR-

- Beginning in April (April 7, 2012) OgNasty collected funds from investors and offered between 8% and 12% monthly return on investment.
- OgNasty invested the funds he collected in Pirateat40's massive ponzi scheme that offered 1% daily to start and later lowered it. (He likely made quite a bit considering 12% monthly is far less than 1% daily)
- OgNasty claimed to have BTC2970 invested on June 1, 2012 and BTC2638.25 on July 1.
- OgNasty claimed to be taking 1% of all investments to set aside as a "reserve account" in case pireateat40 scammed.
- On July 21, 2012 , OgNasty confirmed that the reserve fund was worth BTC65 . I can't find anywhere confirming it was any higher than that.
- On August 17, 2012, OgNasty confirmed that pirateat40 had defaulted "Bitcoin Savings & Trust is officially in default and the reserve fund has been paid out to depositors."
- Around BTC2,000 invested - Around BTC65 returned. OgNasty was returning 8%-12% monthly for about three months while investing in a ponzi scheme that was paying out as much as 1% daily. Yet OgNasty still claims to have been doing the community a favor.