Of course the SEC claims to have, and has the means to enforce in the U.S. and some other jurisdictions, authority over bitcoin securities. That's not the issue. For the record, I'm glad they actually opened a case on Trendon Shavers, a U.S. citizen residing and doing business in the U.S. I'm glad he didn't just get away with it, regardless of who nabbed him. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I would be remiss not to acknowledge the rare good works done by the SEC, but unfortunately, their record seems to demonstrate that they are better at protecting criminals than stopping them.
I don't think anyone's disputing that in any sense.
The only regret, for us, and the major failure, for the SEC, is the plain observation that had they followed MP's instructions prior to April 2012 instead of failing to follow them in March 2014, things such as the Pirate wouldn't have had to be prosecuted as "massive fraud involving 100s of thousands of Bitcoin, valued at half a billion".
This won't go away: the SEC cost the general public hundreds of millions of dollars through its irresponsible, reckless, and ultimately clueless and uninformed behavior in the Bitcoin market for the entire interval. And it doesn't stop there: many more scams could have stopped if instead of empty posturing and bureaucratic impotence they had in a timely manner adopted a pragmatic approach. It's not yet too late even now. It's late, sure, but not too late.I'm glad you mention this point, especially that it is not too late. A timely, pragmatic approach indeed can stop and would have stopped not only the likes of Allen Stanford, Bernie Madoff,
et al who have lost money due to SEC iniquity, but also many people here who've been caught on the wrong side of bitcoin iniquity who had nothing to do with Pirateat40. A casual stroll through this forum's Marketplace section is a good place to start.
But that's a vast discussion I'll reserve for another time and place. I don't want to derail the discussion any further.
Jimmothy, don't take any of this personally. As a fund manager, it is my nature to remain lawful and compliant under all securities laws, while still pushing hard against the gross incompetence and failures of the SEC. Cheers!
