3 ms·

E-Gold founders avoid jail thanks to great judge

20 points by pelle 18y ago

josefresco 18y ago
They always throw the old "child pron" line into these stories to gain public support.
tsally 18y ago
It's sad that we get so excited when our justice system works; it should be a matter of course.
Devilboy 18y ago
This really sucks. e-gold is a great service and this judgement will only mean that competitors that do not have operations in the USA will take over.
ars 18y ago
Maybe they were innovative, but at the end of the day their service was frequently used to launder money. They also violated the law about know your customer (banks must know who each of their customers are, no anonymous customers). Sorry, but if you run a business you have to obey the law, not just ignore it.
- pelle 18y ago
  Their legal counsel had advised them that they were not a money transfer business and not required to do so. They had also been in business successfully for years before the patriot act passed. I also hardly think you could say that they directly ignored it as they had actually been disputing that they were under Fincen regulations for several years and not just sitting back hoping for the best. Whether you agree with their analysis is up to you. I think it was probably not a battle worth fighting. Their service was undoubtably used for money laundering, but mainly for smaller criminals and fraudsters. The same could be said for craigslist, paypal, ebay and even google. Over the years money laundering has become code for tax avoidance, online gaming and dubious investment schemes. By using that term the DOJ make it sound like it was used by major criminal organizations. It wasn't. Real large scale money laundering is done most often through real estate, fake invoices between cover businesses and use existing banks complete with know your customer compliance. For more on how this is done: http://econotrix.com/archives/000524.html http://econotrix.com/archives/000524.html

3 ms·

E-Gold founders avoid jail thanks to great judge

20 points by pelle 18y ago

josefresco 18y ago
They always throw the old "child pron" line into these stories to gain public support.
tsally 18y ago
It's sad that we get so excited when our justice system works; it should be a matter of course.
Devilboy 18y ago
This really sucks. e-gold is a great service and this judgement will only mean that competitors that do not have operations in the USA will take over.
ars 18y ago
Maybe they were innovative, but at the end of the day their service was frequently used to launder money. They also violated the law about know your customer (banks must know who each of their customers are, no anonymous customers). Sorry, but if you run a business you have to obey the law, not just ignore it.
- pelle 18y ago
  Their legal counsel had advised them that they were not a money transfer business and not required to do so. They had also been in business successfully for years before the patriot act passed. I also hardly think you could say that they directly ignored it as they had actually been disputing that they were under Fincen regulations for several years and not just sitting back hoping for the best. Whether you agree with their analysis is up to you. I think it was probably not a battle worth fighting. Their service was undoubtably used for money laundering, but mainly for smaller criminals and fraudsters. The same could be said for craigslist, paypal, ebay and even google. Over the years money laundering has become code for tax avoidance, online gaming and dubious investment schemes. By using that term the DOJ make it sound like it was used by major criminal organizations. It wasn't. Real large scale money laundering is done most often through real estate, fake invoices between cover businesses and use existing banks complete with know your customer compliance. For more on how this is done: http://econotrix.com/archives/000524.html http://econotrix.com/archives/000524.html