Topic: Anyone know what happened to knightmb and his 371,000 BTC? - page 3. (Read 81456 times)

WOW! This no looks good.



Could P.H. be the starfish? 

Haha! He is far from fine. Alive, healthy? perhaps/probably but fine is a long-shot. I don't think any possibility of federal prison time is a fine way to be for anyone.

I hope some day I will have your concerns about security problems, that means mys 6 bitcoins worth a lot 

By the way, I don't know knightmb but I'm happy he is fine.

You're looking to get served 

Meaning of press' terribly-worded attempt to mask outright quotation of USDOJ release found... Here's what the DoJ posted:

"...

The indictment alleges that Brown devised a scheme to defraud Romney, the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and others by falsely claiming that he had gained access to the PricewaterhouseCoopers internal computer network and had stolen tax documents for Romney and his wife, Ann D. Romney, for tax years prior to 2010.

...

According to the indictment, Brown allegedly caused a letter to be delivered in August 2012 to the offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Franklin.  The letter demanded that $1 million worth of the digital currency Bitcoin be deposited to a specific Bitcoin account to prevent the release of the purportedly stolen Romney tax returns.  The letter also invited interested parties who wanted the allegedly stolen Romney tax documents to be released to contribute $1 million to another Bitcoin account.

The indictment alleges that Brown delivered similar letters to the offices of the Democratic and Republican parties in Franklin and caused similar statements to be posted to Pastebin.com.

..."

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2013/June/13-crm-721.html

So... they're alleging Brown trolled people. Anyone up for a game of wire fraud?

We all send PWC an envelope stuffed with a thumb drive containing a document demanding $1b in BTC or we'll release Mitt Romney's tax releases for years AFTER 2010. Include pictures of neighborhood cats on the thumb drive.

830 Crescent Centre Drive
Suite 260
Franklin, Tennessee 37067
United States of America

Telephone: [1] (615) 503-2860
Telecopier: [1] (615) 503-2870


Lead prosecutor is Anthony "Tony" Teelucksingh - can likely be contacted personally at [email protected] (unconfirmed if still live) and officially at
*address and phone # snipped for being his actual home info, assumed too intrusive*
Fax: 202-514-6113
Email: [email protected]

Interestingly, Tony is likely knowledgeable in pgp and general cryptography. Fairly early Internet user. Looking for a pubkey... pubkey was posted @ http://www.charm.net/~tony/pgpkey.htm but is no longer available and I can't find an archive.

Tony previously worked for a DSL ISP, which gives him quite a bit in common with Michael. If they ever have a conversation, it may actually be fairly light-hearted, heh. Tony has also designed websites. Appears to be interested in both Christianity and Islam (sufism, particularly), possibly Muslim. I'd guess Teelucksingh is Indian?

Another email contact: [email protected] (very likely dead)
[email protected] (very likely dead)


... So now I'm intrigued. The guy appears very intelligent and level-headed. Not particularly cynical, but not a blinding ray of sunshine. Would be interesting to hear if he actually thinks MB was serious (assuming he did what was alleged), or if it's supposed to be some move against "ransom trolls," or maybe he was just being pressured to do anything.

There is update on http://www.mbdonationfund.com/

Yeah and 371,000 * $266 = $98,686,000.

I love reading the math done back in 2011:  371,000 @ 2.70  is over 1 million now!!

If that same hoard was available today at around 100, that's 37 million or more, easy.   Crazy how the value skyrocketed like that.  The price seems to have a floor of about $100 I've noticed. 

I think the hashrates have started to increase a little over demand, but not by much.  I think they will have to plateau out at some point, and when that happens, the $100 is gonna jump to $1000 in record time. 

I wonder if they will sell them.

I wonder if he didn't do it and the government is trying to scare the Bitcoin believers by discrediting them. Pick a high value, high profile target and lock them up.

That sure is the motherload. Imagine if he lost the priv key....

On a smaller scale, this is like if Bill Gates went up to a known panhandler and threatened to expose his tricks if he doesn't pay him $200. Even if it did happen, no person believing in the fundamental spirit of law over the letter would ever prosecute him. I'm guessing those who chose to prosecute are either believing themselves "incorruptible" or were paid off. - Or to lazy to think about it - the herp-a-derp doin' mah job dipshits.

The USG may's well go after BitPay for trying to facilitate the "extortion," and maybe throw in some money laundering and terrorism charges, too.

@Tinus, that's the case here, too. If you do recover what was stolen, it's often damaged, and if you don't claim it in time, it's forever forfeit.

If it makes you feel better, the SS left a mess of drives at Brown's house, some in really obvious places, like on the floor right in front of him.

AFAIK, the SS never took any coins while thumbing through Brown's thumbs. (but then, as far as I knew, the case was dropped a few hours before being formally charged. :p )

If MB did do this, there's really no reason to keep him locked up. He's a very clever guy who was trolling either for the attention of authorities, media - and either for himself, Bitcoin, or Romney's reaction.... So... I'm not sure if this would've been unexpected in that case. Maybe he just likes being a pain in the USG's ass. 

I don't think "for the lulz" is a valid defense in the US jusstiss system, yet. Either way, unless Brown confesses, I can't see the USG being able to successfully prosecute Brown, because the evidence we know they have is a joke, while there isn't really much outside evidence which could link him to it except maybe whatever came out of PWC (but surely, they must have had that evidence way before raiding his house if it existed). It's not like you have eyewitnesses, and Brown's tech-savvy enough to know all the obfuscation techniques. The USG would have to have a REAL smoking gun to prove this "without reasonable doubt." They waited a very long time before charging him, so again - unless he confessed, I don't think they have shit on him.

Doesn't say anything about the evidence ... sealed documents, secret courts I suppose?

http://news.yahoo.com/man-charged-scheme-involving-romney-131322316.html
"The U.S. Justice Department said a federal grand jury in Nashville indicted Michael Mancil Brown, 34, of Franklin, and charged him with six counts of wire fraud and six counts of extortion."
Seeya

Keep your backups safe, i guess 

Whoah. Did not know that. That's really crappy. :-/

Not only do they seize and search, they FORMAT as an extra f-u.

Like having your wallet turned in, it never has the cash in it. Cost of doing business?

Is this relevant?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2013/06/27/indictment-in-bitcoin-bidding-scheme-for-mitt-romneys-tax-returns/

He was the agent that 'lost' them...