64 sats \ 0 replies \ @DiedOnTitan 18 Jun \ on: Ramifications Of A Samourai Plea Bargain bitcoin
Excellent article. Thanks for sharing this. It is indeed chilling and already damaging to the developer community. It defies logic that wallet software that never takes possession of keys or a single sat can be considered a money transmitter when the postal service literally transmits cash through its network regularly, does no KYC whatsoever, and never faces any legal issue at all.
And of course banks get charged with money laundering regularly where they are actually taking profits and paying their executives massive bonuses, but we never see their executives face real prison time.
- Wachovia Bank, which was later acquired by Wells Fargo, was implicated in laundering money for Mexican drug cartels. Settlement: In 2010, Wachovia agreed to pay $160 million in fines and penalties as part of a deferred prosecution agreement.
- In 2012, HSBC agreed to pay $1.9 billion in fines and penalties, one of the largest settlements in a money laundering case.
- In 2014, BNP Paribas agreed to pay $8.9 billion in penalties.
- Deutsche Bank was implicated in a Russian money laundering scheme known as the “mirror trading” scheme, which moved $10 billion out of Russia.
- JPMorgan Chase was accused of failing to maintain adequate controls to prevent money laundering, particularly in connection with the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. Settlement: In 2014, JPMorgan agreed to pay $2.6 billion to settle the charges.
and that list goes on and on...
Uncontested, this legal hammer will be applied selectively to any Bitcoin target they choose.