https://news.vice.com/en_us/contributor/david-gilbert
Not only do I reckon that he is corrupt, maybe paid by someone behind him to make bitcoin look bad, but the methods of cashing out he mentions are not illegal.
On the contrary, it can be argued that they are necessary because banks and regulations force us to surrender our privacy.
How criminals are cashing out bitcoin before it’s too late:
The drop and run: LeagueMode operates on the Wall Street Market, one of the most popular dark web markets, and has traded in malware and stolen banking credentials since 2010. He said most vendors use multiple bitcoin wallets — he has more than a dozen himself — combined with automated, personalized scripts to “mix” the bitcoin through micro-transactions to avoid detection. He found a person living locally who wants to regularly buy bitcoin. So once or twice a week, he transfers bitcoin into this person’s account, “and a few hours later he brings a bag of cash to my porch,” he explained. “One-to-one exchange, no fees, and we both stay happy.”
An oldie but a goodie: A vendor using the handle Med3l1n sells stolen credit cards and IDs on the Wall Street Market. The 24-year-old, who is also a moderator of the WSM forum, said there are a number of ways of cashing out, if you know what you’re doing. One way is to send your bitcoin to a company that charges a prepaid debit card that can be used in the real world. “The card emitter doesn't even know that it was recharged with bitcoins because there's a company that does this service for you,” he said. You can get around demands for ID simply by buying fake documentation on the dark web — using bitcoin or another cryptocurrency, of course.
Go to Western Union: Alpha_xxx, a 24-year-old U.S.-based drug dealer on the Point dark web marketplace, said he goes through Western Union to help cash out bitcoin. First he uses one of a number of services that automatically transfer bitcoin to Western Union accounts, then has a third-party — called a picker — collect the cash as a further layer of protection.
It’s easy, if you know how: Dr Lysergic, who sells cocaine, LSD, and MDMA, dismissed claims that you can’t cash out bitcoin anymore. “If anything, it’s becoming easier to cash out for me than when I first began,” he said. He wouldn’t reveal what method he uses to offload his bitcoin, but he said he typically cashes out $3,000 at a time, losing around 2 percent in the process. “If some of these novice vendors were smart and sit and think about it, there are so many ways to do it,” he said. “Sometimes it may be tedious and a long process, but that’s what we signed up for.”
Read the full article https://news.vice.com/en_ca/article/7xdzqa/criminals-are-racing-to-cash-out-their-bitcoin-heres-how-theyre-doing-it