Topic: Tradehill and IAFCU? (Read 1567 times)

Hi,
I am still waiting for my funds to be returned by Tradehill / Jered Kenna from the first time Tradehill closed its business. About 6 months ago I sent an email to Tradehill, Jered responded, confirmed my account balance and requested a BTC address so he could send the funds. He said he would send out the funds but never did. I have sent multiple gentle 'reminder' emails to both his address and the info address but have never received a response.
Has anyone heard from him or received funds recently?
Thanks

This is what I thought, too. Nagle, can you clarify your claim? It's important.

^^ Sorry, but you have a complete misunderstanding of what the court in the "pirate" case ruled with regard to bitcoin, as well as, how that decision affects the rest of the body of U.S. law / regulation.

Bitcoins are not securities, and no one has authoritatively said that they are.

They don't seem to be saying much about what their regulatory problems are.

I suspect that the problem is that the SEC says they have to register as a broker/dealer. Since there's now a court opinion that Bitcoin is a security, it follows that regular securities laws apply. A securities broker is defined as "any person engaged in the business of effecting transactions in securities for the account of others." That's Tradehill. Also, the SEC says "A firm that advertises publicly that it makes a market in securities is obviously a dealer." That's Tradehill.

That means audits, capital requirements, insurance, etc. - all the stuff you have to do to handle other people's money.

This is a tougher requirement than registering as a money transfer firm. It's harder than complying with anti-money laundering laws.  AML is all about disclosure and reporting. Broker/dealer regulation is all about broker/dealers not screwing their customers.

A broker-dealer may not begin business until:

    it has properly filed Form BD, and the SEC has granted its registration;
    it has become a member of an SRO; (a "self-regulation organization, like NASDAQ or FINRA).
    it has become a member of SIPC, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation; (Customers get $500K coverage, the broker pays premiums for this.)
    it complies with all applicable state requirements; and
    its "associated persons" have satisfied applicable qualification requirements. (There's a background check and an exam.)

While all this is a pain for Bitcoin exchanges, it means you get your money back if the "exchange" goes belly-up, which about half of Bitcoin exchanges have done so far. Big win for investors. And no broker/dealer selling to US customers can get away with things like the Mt. Gox withdrawal "hiatus". A broker that gets two or three days behind gets closed down, like Lehman or MF Global. This is a no-bullshit business at the getting-paid level.

Welcome to the real world, Bitcoin. 

What's worse, is Tradehill is suspending bitcoin trading!!  This is nuts.

I received an announcement from Tradehill last night saying

THis is bad news though. I hope IAFCU didn't get too much heat for working with bitfloor, i know that all happened pretty fast for them.

There are two addresses. Looks like it's a very short distance from each other, but not on the same block. I'm unsure which is more likely to contain Jered.

Living Space – 3491 20th Street
Working Space – 2415 Mission Street

I have to go to Rainbow Grocery tomorrow. While I'm down there I'll try again.

Edit: No luck. He's not at either address. Out of town maybe?

Pretty sure. Their page was updated not too long ago. http://www.20mission.com/

I went by 20 Mission a few weeks ago, no one was around and their was a commercial for-lease sign in the window. Are they still around?

Tradehill is likely very interested in a more intimate partnership with a CU which may allow them to bypass MSB licensing... It doesn't make sense for them to simply switch which institution they use for processing and not notify everyone, though.

Jered's not easy to contact. Best bet would probably be for someone curious to go to 20Mission and ask in-person.

A few days ago, a story was picked up by the media that Tradehill has partnered with the IAFCU. However, there seems to be no mention of this in Tradehill's official channels, the only evidence seems to be an email message that was supposedly sent by Tradehill to its customers.

And now we're hearing the relationship, along with any Bitcoin activity, has ended, again with nothing more than an email.

The whole thing sounds very fishy. Is this for real or a hoax?