I'm pretty sure that post explaining how he's planning to sell vaporware and only use a portion of revenue to develop the non-existent product people are buying is enough to show intent, at least to the degree that would get him past a grand jury. Then you get the ability to subpoena, which should show a lot more about what they had vs what he claimed they had to sell at any given time.
That post shows intent. That's huge. Fraud requires an intent to defraud. Before now, there had been no evidence of anything criminal because there was no intent. It could just be incompetence. Now we know it was planned from the start, from the sale of the first hashlet.
Supporters can try to couch it in the excuse that he's describing a different operation, but, considering that what he describes is EXACTLY what GAW did, I doubt many would fall for that outside the clique of true believers.
Who has jurisdiction? I'm thinking wire fraud comes into play, so it could be a federal case.
Do you mean the post that said (via
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.10059082)
4th February 2014, 05:13 PM
I knew they would eventually decide it's better to use our money to build their own data center for them to mine themselves. I kept thinking to myself, why would the same company that makes miners that make more money then selling them, sell them? Why not just milk the miners? 1. Sell the first product to customers, even thought it would be more profitable to mine. This will create a loyal following and set the stage for act two. 2. Now that you have a loyal customer base, use them to fund your next product. But also use them to fund your own data center so you can do your own hashing. 3. Develop the product your customers paid for and but them in said data center and start hashing and keep the mine. Right at the point customers are on edge to "loose loyalty" the product will be magically be done. And volla, it will already be in a data center. Then offer data center to customer for free to win loyalty back. Businesses are in business to do one thing. Make money. Don't believe me? Look at what just happened with the jupiters they promised to sell. You don't think there was a guy who did a spreadsheet over a few times, then came running in the CEOs office saying "look look, if we just keep the jupiters instead of selling them, we will make more!" ? The funny part up is, they are actually using the hosting center they built with our cash as a way to make us feel better. Genius
He's speculating about what another company might have done. He evidently thinks it's brilliant, but he doesn't say it's what he plans to do himself. And even if it were, he's talking about using the miners to mine until the customers are about to jump ship, then (eventually) giving them what they paid for. Extremely sleazy, but what's illegal about it?
It's definitely a significant insight into how he thinks about business and how he views his customers, though.