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TD Bank Makes History as First US Bank to Plead Guilty to Money Laundering Conspiracy

TD Bank Makes History as First US Bank to Plead Guilty to Money Laundering ConspiracyTD Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S., has agreed to pay a record $3 billion penalty, the largest ever under the Bank Secrecy Act, after pleading guilty to felony charges. The bank is the largest in U.S. history to plead guilty to Bank Secrecy Act program failures and the first to […]

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Crypto Platform CEO Arrested for Allegedly Paying Deputies in Extortion Scheme

Crypto Platform CEO Arrested for Allegedly Paying Deputies in Extortion SchemeCrypto platform Zort’s CEO has been arrested on multiple charges. Allegations against Iza include paying large sums to Los Angeles County deputies for illegal activities, such as unlawful searches, extortion schemes, and even a failed kidnapping attempt. “Iza boasted about paying ‘active duty’ law enforcement $280,000 per month,” according to the authorities. Crypto Platform CEO […]

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7 Indicted in $300,000 Queens Bitcoin Theft, Say Prosecutors

7 Indicted in 0,000 Queens Bitcoin Theft, Say ProsecutorsSeven individuals have been indicted for stealing over $300,000 in bitcoin from a Queens resident. The charges against them include grand larceny, money laundering, and identity theft, stemming from a lengthy investigation into a cryptocurrency wallet hack. Using advanced hacking techniques, the group allegedly stole the bitcoin and now face potential sentences of five to […]

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NY Attorney charges 3 tied to ‘Evolved Apes’ NFT scam

The nearly 10,000-strong NFT collection is still listed on OpenSea, but its floor price is a measly $7.60.

Three British nationals tied to the “Evolved Apes” nonfungible token “rug pull” scam have been charged in the United States for conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

The defendants, Mohamed-Amin Atcha, Mohamed Rilaz Waleedh and Daood Hassan, allegedly drove up the prices of 10,000 NFTs on false promises that they would develop a video game before transferring the funds out and abandoning the project, the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York said in a June 6 statement.

“Digital art may be new, but old rules still apply: making false promises for money is illegal [...] NFT fraud is no game, and those responsible will be held accountable,” iterated U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

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Nic Carter doubles down on theory Bitcoin was invented by NSA

The decades old ‘NSA created Bitcoin’ theory has again made the rounds on social media, with one Bitcoin advocate adding more weight to his ongoing theory.

Bitcoin advocate Nic Carter has come out to reiterate his support for the theory that the United States National Security Agency (NSA) had something to do with the creation of Bitcoin (BTC).

On Sept. 15, Iris Energy co-founder Daniel Roberts seemingly revived the decade-old theory on X after posting screenshots of a 1996 paper titled: “How to make a mint: The cryptography of anonymous electronic cash.”

The paper is one of the first known discussions of a Bitcoin-like system, which proposes using public-key cryptography to allow users to make anonymous payments without revealing their identity.

The footer notes show the research paper was “prepared by NSA employees.” Sources included cryptography expert Tatsuaki Okamoto who co-invented the Okamoto–Uchiyama public key cryptosystem in 1998.

On Sept. 21, Carter — a partner of Castle Island Ventures partner doubled down his support for the notion stating “I actually do believe this,” before adding:

“I call it the Bitcoin lab leak hypothesis. I think it was a shuttered internal R&D project which one researcher thought was too good to lay fallow on the shelf and chose to secretly release.”

Carter has actually held the theory for several years, proposing back in 2020: “If Bitcoin was written by NSA cryptographers as a monetary bioweapon, if you will, and the code escaped those sensitive confines... does that make it a virus... that escaped from a lab?”

In 2021, he stated: “The only decent thing the NSA ever did from the world was let Bitcoin leak from the lab."

However, he went on to say that this doesn’t imply the U.S. government secretly controls all the Satoshi coins, another theory that often piggybacks on the Bitcoin / NSA conspiracy theory which suggests the NSA created a backdoor to the Bitcoin code.

“In my version of this made-up idea, the researcher did it without permission of the NSA, and chose to leave the coins behind so as to preserve his anonymity.”

“There’s a ton of other circumstantial evidence which supports this [theory],” he added.

Meanwhile, some users drew attention to one of the cryptography academics Tatsuaki Okamoto listed in the 1996 paper, suggesting the name sounds very similar to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin.

“The name could have been used as inspiration for satoshi. That’s not really a critical part of the theory though,” Carter said.

Related: This is how Satoshi Nakamoto envisioned crypto working

Meanwhile, director of Intelligence at cyber security firm Krebs Stamos, Matthew Pines, believes it was most likely a “cross-fertilization of NSA crypto nerds and cipher punk nerds,” adding:

“I suspect Satoshi (or at least his/their close intellectual collaborators) has close NSA work associations—but I don’t think Bitcoin itself or the white paper were officially sanctioned.”

Former Goldman Sachs executive Raoul Pal has previously shared his own theory. In an interview with Impact Theory earlier this year he said:

“I think the US government and the UK government invented it ... which is the NSA and the GCHQ in the UK, who are the two world centers of cryptography,”

Cointelegraph’s deep dive into the conspiracy theory in August interviewed former NSA cryptanalyst Jeff Man, who said that while it was “feasible” that the NSA could have created Bitcoin as a means to gather intelligence about its enemies, it is highly doubtful.

However, Man concluded that even if they did, it is likely we’ll never find out the real story behind the world’s most popular digital asset until it doesn't matter anymore.

Magazine: Big Questions: Did the NSA create Bitcoin?

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Disgraced FTX Co-Founder Awaits Trial, Passes Time Playing Video Games and Blogging on His New Substack Newsletter

Disgraced FTX Co-Founder Awaits Trial, Passes Time Playing Video Games and Blogging on His New Substack NewsletterThe former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), has published a Substack newsletter on Jan. 12, 2023, and the first post is titled “FTX Pre-Mortem Overview.” In the post, SBF maintains that an “extreme, quick, targeted crash precipitated by the CEO of Binance made Alameda insolvent.” The blog post does not mention the allegations made […]

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Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Pleads Not Guilty to Criminal Charges, Bond Signees’ Names Remain Sealed 

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Pleads Not Guilty to Criminal Charges, Bond Signees’ Names Remain Sealed On Jan. 3, 2023, the former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) pleaded not guilty to eight criminal charges that involve two counts of wire fraud and six counts of conspiracy. In addition to the not guilty plea, SBF’s judge Lewis Kaplan granted the defendant’s request to keep the names of his $250 million bond signees […]

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Report: FTX Co-Founder Bankman-Fried Plans to Surrender to US Extradition Request

Report: FTX Co-Founder Bankman-Fried Plans to Surrender to US Extradition RequestDisgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has reportedly reversed his decision to contest his extradition to the United States. Bankman-Fried has spent close to five days in the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services (BDOCS) jail Fox Hill, an overcrowded prison known for being filthy and one that has been accused of prison maltreatment. Reuters Source […]

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SEC Fines John McAfee’s Associate $375K in Penalties for ICO Promotions

SEC Fines John McAfee’s Associate 5K in Penalties for ICO PromotionsAccording to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) judgment, Jimmy Gale Watson, a former associate of the now deceased John McAfee, has been fined for being paid to promote pump and dump-fashioned initial coin offerings (ICOs). The SEC has ruled that Watson must pay roughly $375K in penalties and he’s not allowed to participate in […]

MicroStrategy completes $3 billion convertible notes offering to buy more Bitcoin