6 ms·

But why? Was it dirty money somehow?

ryanlol 9y ago
Nah, I was charged with other crimes (none of which had a financial incentive, according to LE or the courts). While at it they "subpoenad" my bank account history, saw a bunch of wires from normal European exchanges and then one wire from a Chinese account. Never cared to ask about the European ones (I verified that they didn't ask the exchanges directly either.), but the Chinese one was apparently particularly interesting. They asked me a few questions, I explained the (legal) source of the money, few years later the thing actually got to court and I was found guilty with the only evidence against me being the country where the funds came from. Not worth it to appeal, I might get my 6-7k euros back but would probably end up paying more than that for lawyers.
- yorwba 9y ago
  Can you give more information about the crimes you were charged with?
  - ryanlol 9y ago
    Pretty boring. 50700 counts of aggravated unauthorized access to computer systems for making some scripts to drop a bot on lots of coldfusion site. Incl https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5552756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5552756 1 count of the same https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6637426 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6637426 1 of the same + bonus charge for possibly starting a SMTP server on the domain https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5098218 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5098218 Credit card fraud for sharing some cards on IRC and unsuccessfully trying to use a few. Money laundering for receiving a wire of ~6.5k euros from China. There might be something more, but that's all I can remember for now. Mostly pretty silly things anyway.
    - MichaelGG 9y ago
      Wait, you're HTP Ryan?
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
    - yorwba 9y ago
      I realize now that I somehow misparsed your comment as saying that you had been charged for other crimes as a result of that transaction, but when rereading it now, the causality is actually in the opposite direction. I guess once they had a solid case for one, they just threw in everything else they found suspicious? Thanks for being so open.
      - ryanlol 9y ago
        >I guess once they had a solid case for one, they just threw in everything else they found suspicious? Yep, it tends to be an easy extra charge to slap on anyone who isn't keeping very good books. As MichaelGG said, a fake crime.

Nah, I was charged with other crimes (none of which had a financial incentive, according to LE or the courts). While at it they "subpoenad" my bank account history, saw a bunch of wires from normal European exchanges and then one wire from a Chinese account. Never cared to ask about the European ones (I verified that they didn't ask the exchanges directly either.), but the Chinese one was apparently particularly interesting. They asked me a few questions, I explained the (legal) source of the money, few years later the thing actually got to court and I was found guilty with the only evidence against me being the country where the funds came from. Not worth it to appeal, I might get my 6-7k euros back but would probably end up paying more than that for lawyers.

yorwba 9y ago
Can you give more information about the crimes you were charged with?
- ryanlol 9y ago
  Pretty boring. 50700 counts of aggravated unauthorized access to computer systems for making some scripts to drop a bot on lots of coldfusion site. Incl https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5552756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5552756 1 count of the same https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6637426 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6637426 1 of the same + bonus charge for possibly starting a SMTP server on the domain https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5098218 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5098218 Credit card fraud for sharing some cards on IRC and unsuccessfully trying to use a few. Money laundering for receiving a wire of ~6.5k euros from China. There might be something more, but that's all I can remember for now. Mostly pretty silly things anyway.
  - MichaelGG 9y ago
    Wait, you're HTP Ryan?
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - yorwba 9y ago
    I realize now that I somehow misparsed your comment as saying that you had been charged for other crimes as a result of that transaction, but when rereading it now, the causality is actually in the opposite direction. I guess once they had a solid case for one, they just threw in everything else they found suspicious? Thanks for being so open.
    - ryanlol 9y ago
      >I guess once they had a solid case for one, they just threw in everything else they found suspicious? Yep, it tends to be an easy extra charge to slap on anyone who isn't keeping very good books. As MichaelGG said, a fake crime.