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I think it's amazing, given the feds' apparent belief that the system was used to transmit illegal money only, they shut it down instead of just working with th
by Udo 13y ago
I think it's amazing, given the feds' apparent belief that the system was used to transmit illegal money only, they shut it down instead of just working with the owners to record all the transactions. Seems to me, this would have delivered some pretty easy law enforcement home runs for (almost) free.
- makomk 13y agoAfter what happened to e-gold, there's fuck all chance anyone running a similar service would want to work with the feds.
- tzs 13y agoLR and e-gold are the same people, in fact.
- scott_s 13y agoSimilar things have been done before: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/11/20/165590860/episode-418-how-the-government-set-up-a-fake-bank-to-launder-drug-money http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/11/20/165590860/episode-... But there are risks involved, particularly when you're taking something over versus starting it yourself.
- metageek 13y agoIf LR operated as described in the indictment, it didn't really have information about its customers, so those records might not have been all that useful.
- Udo 13y agoAll it would take is a little bit of technological imagination.
- mturmon 13y agoThe wait-and-collect-info strategy can fail too. If they watch transactions happen, trying to trace the money of particularly promising ones, and something goes south, they end up like the Fast and Furious ATF scandal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal Basically, by letting it go on, they become implicated in whatever happens.