You're all aware of the thing that has been going on regarding Goat and the freezing of his account earlier this week. There are plenty of threads regarding the matter you can find the details there.
Let me put forward the reasons behind our actions.
Before explaining I would like to apologise to shareholders on GLBSE who were adversely effected, those most directly affected were TYGRR-BANK holders who's dividend payment was delayed as a result of Goats non-compliance to our request for ID, as per our terms and conditions.
GLBSE will make an extra dividend payment to TYGRR-BANK shareholders for all the drama and inconvenience over the last few days.
We have just moved to GLBSE2.0 which is an entirely different platform from 1.0 (a proven system). We hold a considerable amount of other peoples money(obviously not in our hot wallet, but offline), if you have an account on GLBSE this means your money. Until GLBSE 2.0 has been running for some time without issue I won't be able to relax, I am paranoid about security, it's something I lose sleep over(when I do sleep).
I'm unable to give exact details (internal GLBSE transactions are not public information) but there was suspicious activity involving Goats account, at the time I put it down to people (Goat) getting used to using the new system and playing around a little. Not long later I was warned about Goats activity on the forums (looking like a classic ponzi scheme).
I've never really dealt with Goat before this event so I didn't know anything about him, neither did anyone I knew.
My greatest concern was the security of shareholders funds on GLBSE, shortly after hundreds of login attempts had been made on Goats account. I immediately locked his account.
I also began to go over some of his threads and they did indeed look like a scam, the amounts involved (in GLBSE) are thousands of bitcoin, shareholders money, I was understandably concerned.
He then contacted me about not being able to get into his account, I asked for proof of ID, that I could verify his account while I got this sorted out (several forms including pictures of passports, phone numbers, work phone numbers, home address, I ask all these things of asset issuers when verifying their ID, all of which he eventually provided to a third party).
Goats reply and immediate actions knocked me back.
"...Also now my GLBSE account is as safe as this G-mail account I have used all over the world and who knows how many people have this password? You have got to be kidding. I need to pay people on GLBSE tomorrow but I'm wondering if it is really safe to make the account active at this point. You are not going to take responsibility well I am not going to either. To be this lax about security is negligence.
I’m in shock, really."
and
"Sorry about this but I am not going to take the fall for this if it goes sideways."
This was in reply to me informing him that he could now recover his account via his email(as well as asking for ID verification).
He then began to make posts all over the forum and opened a thread on his perceived worries of GLBSE security.
I admit this made me panic, it is the exact behavior of a scammer. A difficult possition to be in, if Tygrr turned out to be a scam what would it do to GLBSE? What would it do to bitcoin (another bitcoin scam)? To protect GLBSE users I made the choice to be proactive.
In an effort to reduce the possible damage I contacted First Pirate Savings and Trust and asked them to lock goats account so he couldn't withdraw funds (which would mean stolen funds if he was a scammer), until we got it sorted out. The request was denied.
And since that time everything has been all over the forums and most of it you know.
I apologise for overreacting, the combined pressure of launching GLBSE2.0 and the possibility of the Greatest Of All Thefts on GLBSE (though certainly not bitcoin) happening got to me, and I overstepped the bounds of what is appropriate action.
After everything is said and done I don't actually think Goat is a scammer, I would put down his odd behaviour to being...challenged.
I also regret disturbing him in any way shape or form as since I've unlocked his account he hasn't left me alone, making accusations that I'm trying to steal from him, stalking me on Skype, CONTACTING MY EMPLOYER to complain about me and GLBSE, insinuating that they (my employer) are also somehow implicated in this on the forums in what appears to be an attempt to get me fired.
Demanding payments:
"For the time I did not have access to the money the total will come up to be 11.5BTC."
and making ultimatums:
"I will give you 24 hours to respond before posting about this on the forum."
What has become abundantly clear from this incident is that the vast majority of the users of GLBSE have never read the terms and conditions for using GLBSE (we have had Terms and Conditions since July 2011). With some even claiming that there were none and then going on to claim that we violated our own terms.
As a result of this incident the way GLBSE is being run will have to change, it can no longer be kept as informal as we have previously enjoyed. It also means that I will not be able to comment as freely as I used to on this forum, this is something I will miss.
Thank you for you time and sorry for the drama.
Nefario