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An ex-colleague of mine worked for OneCoin (another crypto scam originating from Bulgaria) when their offices got raided a few years ago. Now he’s an engineerin

An ex-colleague of mine worked for OneCoin (another crypto scam originating from Bulgaria) when their offices got raided a few years ago. Now he’s an engineering manager at Nexo. I can see a pattern emerging in his career.

unicornmama 4y ago
A famous short seller, I think it was Chanos but I can't remember, once said in an interview that they follow where the management of past frauds go as a signal to determine future frauds.
- ErikAugust 4y ago
  I may start a hedge fund based on this alone.
dmos62 4y ago
Disruptive product-oriented technologist, with a mind for optimizing customer-business needs.
- sandworm101 4y ago
  Shady. Willing to be paid in strange currencies deposited in overseas banks. Likely to have tax troubles one day. Knows how to buy a plane ticket using cash. Strong opinions on Krugerrand valuation. Owns a motorcycle without an odometer. Bought a house with a series of 9,999$ travelers checks. More likely to install a Kim Dotcom-type panic room than run for public office.
  - Consultant32452 4y ago
    Where do I sign up?
    - luckylion 4y ago
      Just hang around bitcointalk and similar forums and make it clear that you can write code and know how to set up new tokens.
  - para_parolu 4y ago
    Out of curiosity: why motorcycle without odomet?
    - sandworm101 4y ago
      A bike without an odometer is "true mileage unknown" (TMU) which makes selling/insuring/valuing it somewhat difficult. On a custom chopper that is normal. Many choppers don't even have speedometers. But on a normal bike missing such instruments is seen as a red flag that the bike is stolen and/or made from stolen parts.
      - latchkey 4y ago
        odometer value is easily modified, even with digital ones. Even then, it is often not accurate at all, especially on motorcycles, due to the fact that it is usually driven by a cable attached to the front wheel (just disconnect the cable and number never goes up).
        sandworm101 4y ago
        Maybe in the 1980s. On a modern bike it is integrated into the transmission, usually on the drive sprocket. And then the signal is used in slightly different ways, with the odometer being accurate and the speedometer generally reading a few % higher than the actual speed. Some bikes may also use it for electronic engine/emission controls too.
        latchkey 4y ago
        Not all bikes. 2023 DRZ 400sm still has a cable (they haven't modified the design in years). Most scooters/motorbikes are cables too. Even still, it is easily hacked on almost any vehicle (Tesla is a great example of a connected car making it much harder) and there is plenty of YT all about it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfPm-9p0YUI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfPm-9p0YUI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MFd7Ufe7v4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MFd7Ufe7v4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wygJwWnFm4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wygJwWnFm4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q_AMBBNk2A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q_AMBBNk2A When I was living in Vietnam, I could pay someone about $5 to do it for me. What I learned pretty quickly was that the ODO is the last thing I'd rely on for price.
  - x-complexity 4y ago
    > Shady. > Willing to be paid in strange currencies deposited in overseas banks. I'd need a more concrete definition for 'strange currencies', but discriminatory behaviour shouldn't be applied to anyone that has an account overseas, especially in the age of global banking & cross-border payments. > Likely to have tax troubles one day. On the one hand, this will definitely happen: Internationally-acquired income often subsequently leads to poor tax handling, especially if the individual involved is unfamiliar with the intricacies of filing taxes for such sources of income. However, it is also a consequence of overlapping jurisdictions & law enforcement, with unified, clear & unambiguous definitions being the exception rather than the norm. > Knows how to buy a plane ticket using cash. Why is using cash a problematic behaviour now? Just because I still use cash doesn't mean that I should be classified as 'shady'. > Strong opinions on Krugerrand valuation. Tried to search this & only found references to the gold coin with the same name. As similarly stated beforehand, why is being a goldbug now 'shady'? > Owns a motorcycle without an odometer. ...I can see why: An odometer, coupled with the motorcycle's purchase histories, is a good way of finding out the roads that a person used to travel on with some reliability. > Bought a house with a series of 9,999$ travelers checks. Same as the plane ticket: The large denomination will raise eyebrows, but it shouldn't be used as a marker for discrimination. > More likely to install a Kim Dotcom-type panic room than run for public office. ...This is similar to the odometer-less motorcycle: The individual wanting to install a panic room is likely someone that's thinking about worst case scenarios, & planning with that in mind. ------ All of the listed "shady" traits stem from a core: Paranoia, specifically paranoia of a malicious State. More generally, it's the fear that the State will use the information it gathered about a person for unwarranted surveillance & eventually prosecution over the slightest infractions. In earnest: Why is paranoia suddenly a "shady" thing?
gonzo41 4y ago
I would be super worried about having a resume filled with ponzi schemes.
- mrtksn 4y ago
  Unless you are applying for the next big thing.
- winReInstall 4y ago
  But what if your career is crime and you need just 2 additional ponzi schemes, to quadruple the crime output.
- sandworm101 4y ago
  Just like every ponzi scheme, the trick is to get out in time. I wonder how many people worked for Madoff but left before it all fell apart. How many of them are now working in other financial jobs? or Lehman bros.
  - permo-w 4y ago
    I mean you could say that about investments in general
  - kasey_junk 4y ago
    Lehman brothers wasn’t a Ponzi scheme.
    - sandworm101 4y ago
      Scheme no, but it was a company that fell apart quickly. Employees would be better served to get out and secure a new job the day before a crash rather than the day after.
      - kasey_junk 4y ago
        That’s true of any company going out of business. We don’t typically count it against employees for future hiring when that happens though.
PragmaticPulp 4y ago
I honestly think a lot of the employees of these companies don’t know about the underlying fraud. The cryptocurrency world is full of rationalizations and illogical beliefs that make a lot of these businesses sound legitimate to the underinformed. That said, I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with cryptocurrency obsessed hires and peers in the workplace. This got especially bad in 2022 when people’s portfolios were up and they all believed they were on the verge of retiring wealthy. There’s something about buying into the crypto dream that makes people think they’ve found a cheat code to financial freedom while the rest of us are stupidly working our jobs. I’ve watched the same exact pattern play out with coworkers who bought into MLM schemes or self-help guru courses. These fantasies about breaking free from the world through “secret” financial instruments will always be attractive to some subset of people.
- gitanovic 4y ago
  MLM and crypto scams do work... for some people, it's just a tiny minority and normally the vast majority pays for them
- grugagag 4y ago
  Human psychology allows for these traps and while people eventually realize what are traps new ones emerge and the cycle continues. Too bad this whole phenomena takes away any benefit crypto could have brought
ta988 4y ago
Tell us where he works next.

unicornmama 4y ago

A famous short seller, I think it was Chanos but I can't remember, once said in an interview that they follow where the management of past frauds go as a signal to determine future frauds.

ErikAugust 4y ago
I may start a hedge fund based on this alone.

dmos62 4y ago

Disruptive product-oriented technologist, with a mind for optimizing customer-business needs.

sandworm101 4y ago
Shady. Willing to be paid in strange currencies deposited in overseas banks. Likely to have tax troubles one day. Knows how to buy a plane ticket using cash. Strong opinions on Krugerrand valuation. Owns a motorcycle without an odometer. Bought a house with a series of 9,999$ travelers checks. More likely to install a Kim Dotcom-type panic room than run for public office.
- Consultant32452 4y ago
  Where do I sign up?
  - luckylion 4y ago
    Just hang around bitcointalk and similar forums and make it clear that you can write code and know how to set up new tokens.
- para_parolu 4y ago
  Out of curiosity: why motorcycle without odomet?
  - sandworm101 4y ago
    A bike without an odometer is "true mileage unknown" (TMU) which makes selling/insuring/valuing it somewhat difficult. On a custom chopper that is normal. Many choppers don't even have speedometers. But on a normal bike missing such instruments is seen as a red flag that the bike is stolen and/or made from stolen parts.
    - latchkey 4y ago
      odometer value is easily modified, even with digital ones. Even then, it is often not accurate at all, especially on motorcycles, due to the fact that it is usually driven by a cable attached to the front wheel (just disconnect the cable and number never goes up).
      - sandworm101 4y ago
        Maybe in the 1980s. On a modern bike it is integrated into the transmission, usually on the drive sprocket. And then the signal is used in slightly different ways, with the odometer being accurate and the speedometer generally reading a few % higher than the actual speed. Some bikes may also use it for electronic engine/emission controls too.
        latchkey 4y ago
        Not all bikes. 2023 DRZ 400sm still has a cable (they haven't modified the design in years). Most scooters/motorbikes are cables too. Even still, it is easily hacked on almost any vehicle (Tesla is a great example of a connected car making it much harder) and there is plenty of YT all about it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfPm-9p0YUI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfPm-9p0YUI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MFd7Ufe7v4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MFd7Ufe7v4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wygJwWnFm4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wygJwWnFm4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q_AMBBNk2A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q_AMBBNk2A When I was living in Vietnam, I could pay someone about $5 to do it for me. What I learned pretty quickly was that the ODO is the last thing I'd rely on for price.
- x-complexity 4y ago
  > Shady. > Willing to be paid in strange currencies deposited in overseas banks. I'd need a more concrete definition for 'strange currencies', but discriminatory behaviour shouldn't be applied to anyone that has an account overseas, especially in the age of global banking & cross-border payments. > Likely to have tax troubles one day. On the one hand, this will definitely happen: Internationally-acquired income often subsequently leads to poor tax handling, especially if the individual involved is unfamiliar with the intricacies of filing taxes for such sources of income. However, it is also a consequence of overlapping jurisdictions & law enforcement, with unified, clear & unambiguous definitions being the exception rather than the norm. > Knows how to buy a plane ticket using cash. Why is using cash a problematic behaviour now? Just because I still use cash doesn't mean that I should be classified as 'shady'. > Strong opinions on Krugerrand valuation. Tried to search this & only found references to the gold coin with the same name. As similarly stated beforehand, why is being a goldbug now 'shady'? > Owns a motorcycle without an odometer. ...I can see why: An odometer, coupled with the motorcycle's purchase histories, is a good way of finding out the roads that a person used to travel on with some reliability. > Bought a house with a series of 9,999$ travelers checks. Same as the plane ticket: The large denomination will raise eyebrows, but it shouldn't be used as a marker for discrimination. > More likely to install a Kim Dotcom-type panic room than run for public office. ...This is similar to the odometer-less motorcycle: The individual wanting to install a panic room is likely someone that's thinking about worst case scenarios, & planning with that in mind. ------ All of the listed "shady" traits stem from a core: Paranoia, specifically paranoia of a malicious State. More generally, it's the fear that the State will use the information it gathered about a person for unwarranted surveillance & eventually prosecution over the slightest infractions. In earnest: Why is paranoia suddenly a "shady" thing?

gonzo41 4y ago

I would be super worried about having a resume filled with ponzi schemes.

mrtksn 4y ago
Unless you are applying for the next big thing.
winReInstall 4y ago
But what if your career is crime and you need just 2 additional ponzi schemes, to quadruple the crime output.
sandworm101 4y ago
Just like every ponzi scheme, the trick is to get out in time. I wonder how many people worked for Madoff but left before it all fell apart. How many of them are now working in other financial jobs? or Lehman bros.
- permo-w 4y ago
  I mean you could say that about investments in general
- kasey_junk 4y ago
  Lehman brothers wasn’t a Ponzi scheme.
  - sandworm101 4y ago
    Scheme no, but it was a company that fell apart quickly. Employees would be better served to get out and secure a new job the day before a crash rather than the day after.
    - kasey_junk 4y ago
      That’s true of any company going out of business. We don’t typically count it against employees for future hiring when that happens though.

PragmaticPulp 4y ago

I honestly think a lot of the employees of these companies don’t know about the underlying fraud. The cryptocurrency world is full of rationalizations and illogical beliefs that make a lot of these businesses sound legitimate to the underinformed. That said, I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with cryptocurrency obsessed hires and peers in the workplace. This got especially bad in 2022 when people’s portfolios were up and they all believed they were on the verge of retiring wealthy. There’s something about buying into the crypto dream that makes people think they’ve found a cheat code to financial freedom while the rest of us are stupidly working our jobs. I’ve watched the same exact pattern play out with coworkers who bought into MLM schemes or self-help guru courses. These fantasies about breaking free from the world through “secret” financial instruments will always be attractive to some subset of people.

gitanovic 4y ago
MLM and crypto scams do work... for some people, it's just a tiny minority and normally the vast majority pays for them
grugagag 4y ago
Human psychology allows for these traps and while people eventually realize what are traps new ones emerge and the cycle continues. Too bad this whole phenomena takes away any benefit crypto could have brought

ta988 4y ago

Tell us where he works next.