It is more likely the 'legal reasons' that Ukyo is talking about are 'if I told you what happened to your money, you'd have a better chance of suing me, so I'm not going to say anything.'
Some of you guys have your head in the sand.
Ok say for second there is a legitimate legal reason Ukyo can't say what happened to the coins (which is highly implausible, but for hypothetical sake, lets say so). Is that same legal reason preventing him from telling people what happened to the coins also the same reason why he allowed people to deposit to WeExchange for 2 months when he knew that the WeExchange users would not be able to receive their coins back?
I would just love to hear the answer to this. Some of you are are so afraid of admitting to yourself that this is a scam that you aren't even thinking rationally about what has happened, what has been said, and what you have lost.
I dont see whats highly improbable. We know for fact Silk Road is being investigated, and its almost certain some other bitcoin scheme's/scams are being investigated as well. Its unthinkable authorities are not at least trying to track associated bitcoin transactions. Its also very likely at least some SR dealers or users would have used BF/WE (as well as other exchanges and possibly security exchanges). For authorities to gain access to BF/WE's IP logs, email addresses and other data, they would have needed a
2703(d) order. I would go as far as saying it would be very surprising if this had NOT happened. Since a 2703 order is subject to a gag order, and a gag order actually would have made some sense, especially if a "
trap and trace" was put in place, Ukyo would not be allowed to disclose this.
As for the inability to pay out, here is one of many possibilities; while BF/WE may have been targeted initially just to help catch SR users, it would quickly have become clear to authorities that the exchange itself (not too mention, all the asset issuers) is/are violating all kinds of laws, and once they collected the data they needed for the main investigation, it was shut down, possibly with servers/assets/wallets seized. Danny might be helping in providing a legal way to refund customers without violating money transmission laws, as his company might have the required licenses. The fact that most bitcoins are unavailable might be related to the distinction between BF and WE, with funds supposedly belonging to one or the other being seized. You might guess BF funds were still available as in the past security exchanges have been allowed to close to down properly, see BTCT.
Foot note: Im not risking a single satoshi in this, and Im not exactly afraid to call something a scam when I think it is one. Its just that in his case there is a much more likely explanation. One that in fact, Ive been predicting for quite some time.