Crypto Companies Behind Tether Used Falsified Documents and Shell Companies To Get Bank Accounts (wsj.com) 30
In late 2018, the companies behind the most widely traded cryptocurrency were struggling to maintain their access to the global banking system. Some of their backers turned to shadowy intermediaries, falsified documents and shell companies to get back in, documents show. WSJ: One of those intermediaries, a major tether trader in China, was trying to "circumvent the banking system by providing fake sales invoices and contracts for each deposit and withdrawal," Stephen Moore, one of the owners of Tether Holdings, said in an email viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Moore said it was too risky to continue using the fake sales invoices and contracts, which he had signed, and recommended they abandon the efforts to open the accounts, the emails show. "I would not want to argue any of the above in a potential fraud/money laundering case," he wrote.
Tether runs tether, the $71 billion stablecoin that is the most widely traded cryptocurrency, and a sister company runs Bitfinex, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges. Losing access to the banking system was "an existential threat" to their business, the companies said in a lawsuit. A cache of emails and documents reviewed by the Journal show a long-running effort to stay connected to the financial system. The companies often hid their identities behind other businesses or individuals. Using third parties occasionally caused problems, including hundreds of millions of dollars of seized assets and connections to a designated terrorist organization. Tether has been under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, according to a person familiar with the matter. The investigation has been overseen by the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office.
Tether runs tether, the $71 billion stablecoin that is the most widely traded cryptocurrency, and a sister company runs Bitfinex, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges. Losing access to the banking system was "an existential threat" to their business, the companies said in a lawsuit. A cache of emails and documents reviewed by the Journal show a long-running effort to stay connected to the financial system. The companies often hid their identities behind other businesses or individuals. Using third parties occasionally caused problems, including hundreds of millions of dollars of seized assets and connections to a designated terrorist organization. Tether has been under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, according to a person familiar with the matter. The investigation has been overseen by the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office.
this is my surprised face (Score:1)
Yeah no shit (Score:1)
Every single centralized crypto will be fraudulent and/or compromised.
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Centralized crypto is bad. Always was. Crypto tethered to Fiat is also a bad idea.
Every single centralized crypto will be fraudulent and/or compromised.
From the way things appear to be going, one could argue *all* crypto is bad. It may have started with noble intentions (said with a large grain of salt) but it is, and has been, way too easy for (widely categorized) bad actors -- eg, crypto bros/hoes -- to work their way in and manipulate things to the benefit of themselves and detriment/expense of others. Gullible people believing crypto to be an easy way to get rich fast, doesn't help, but that's on them.
The companies often hid their identities behind other businesses or individuals.
Never a good sign, maybe that's why this isn't
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LOL - ya'll will never let Reagan go. Either it's "Reagan is too liberal for current Republicans and Democrats" or Reagan is an ultra capitalist conservative and destroyed our country,
It's both (Score:2)
That said today's Republican party is so batshit insane that yes Reagan would be considered at most a liberal Republican by today's standards. Clinton
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You could have written it all without the word "centralized" and it means the same thing. Crypto is always a scam and always has been.
Re: Yeah no shit (Score:2)
Amazon and Wal-Mart should take crypto (Score:2)
When there are ubiquitous stores to buy real things for crypto then it becomes the financial system. Till then it can be disconnected. When will amazon and wal mart take crypto?
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Even when businesses accept cryptocurrency, what they typically do is have a payment processor immediately sell it at the market rate for fiat. The payment processor takes a cut, so it's no better the credit cards, and still worse than accepting cash. There's also the matter that most normal people have no interest in dealing with the hassle of buying cryptocurrency in the first place.
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If they do it though, others may not. If they don't these cryptos are designed to appreciate in value. So then the merchants ( even the big ones ) will learn to stay in crypto to get the appreciation.
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So cryptocurrency isn't a currency but a collectible you buy and keep in its box on the shelf? It can't be both.
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lol, it absolutely can. People do this all of the time with physical cash, whether it be pre-1965 silver coins, Susan B Anthony dollars, whatever
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The inherent thing that crypto proponents do not understand is they will never be a currency. They do not understand what a currency is. Yes the definition is "a medium of exchange", but that's only half right. True currency is a medium of exchange that in theory is a relatively stable store of value that can be translated into other things. That means "trust" is implicit and required for a currenc
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Amazon ( and walmart mostly since it uses facial recognition at the checkout maybe even to give added scrutiny to previously known thieves ) knows its customers and sellers though. And anyway in wal-mart's case cash is no worse than crypto.
Not sure why someone doesn't open a darknet style escrow system where they don't sell illegal things. If they were smart, they would maintain ignorance about buyers and sellers and what countries they operate out of, and also where the products were being sent to and
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They could use some currency like DAI or Algorand if they didn't like Bitcoin anyway.
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The speed of the transaction might matter for Wal-Mart, but their online site or Amazon have not got that problem. They would just monitor the blockchain for transaction initiation and only ship when payment was actually confirmed. The customer's experience would be no different than with cards.
This part of your point is the relative point. No cryptocurrency offers any value of purpose to Amazon or Walmart. Amazon knows when they get paid; they get a credit card payment. WalMart knows when they get paid, it's at the checkout register. They won't ship until paid. Your point about monitoring the blockchain and initiate shipment only when payment is confirmed is not a value; they already have that. A customer places an order, a sales order is automatically generated and serialized. The system
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Except that with cards, you can get instant confirmation. With instant confirmation it means you can deduct the item out of inventory and proceed with the rest of the order. If you use crypto, then you don't really w
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This is five minutes or less for modern proof of stake coins. Also you won't get a chargeback after that long guaranteed. I remember reading about a cam-prostitute complaining about all the sex acts she did and then they were all disputed and charged back. Also there's a transaction fee for every CC transaction of 2-4% or more. This is much more than a modern proof of stake transaction fee which doesn't depend on the amount of money moved..
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That Valve story is made up bullshit. They quit accepting Bitcoin because the price variance was a struggle to deal with. How tf can a BTC transaction be "fraudulent"? It can't. That's a feature
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Bitcoin itself isn't really as volatile as the opposition would like to illustrate. These days, with a payment window of ~15 minutes that most Bitpay using merchants use, the difference in the price between send and receive aren't large enough to be of concern. But it isn't enough income to consider lost procedural costs of accepting it in the first place. Accepting an American Express payment can lead to more loss of sales revenue than paying with Bitcoin in almost all cases these days.
Volatility of a curr
Why? (Score:2)
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Hmm, you're right. Maybe Target should take it and snipe some of Wal-Mart's customers. Or Maybe Wal-Mart should and snipe some of Amazon's online customers. Etc
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But i thought you wanted to "Be your own bank" (Score:2)
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Looks like someone is asking for a free pentest of their website. Mind if we post the vulnerabilities we find right here for your convenience?
Whhhhaaaa!!!??!! (Score:2)