Police in the Netherlands have arrested three persons allegedly involved in cannabis cultivation and money laundering. During a raid in Sneek, Friesland police seized 135 cannabis plants, cash, jewels, and assorted other items. Allegedly a financial investigation shows the suspects received "440,000 euros" in Bitcoin, though how they received it apparently remains a mystery. Dutch legal treatment of cannabis involves a "tolerance policy" allowing for limited retail commerce in cannabis though production and wholesaling to retailers is prosecuted.
Author Archives: Aaron 'BingoBoingo' Rogier
Tor Developers Set Funding Goal
The Daily Dot reports that the developers of the Tor software and network have decided to set an ambitious fund raising goal for this year. Specifically they aspire to reduce the portion of their funding which comes from the United States government to under half of their total. Last year roughly three quarters of their funding came from the United States Government. This follows another piece published by Yasha Levine on March 1st where Levine highlighted that the "activists" behind Tor, Open Whisper Systems, and other popular "privacy" ventures receive funding from the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a Federal Agency born in the CIA which specializes in propaganda and psychological warfare. Continue reading
Crapware Still Bundles Mining Software
The uTorrent software has been bundled with a cryptocurrency miner in its latest update. This inclusion has generated a number of user complaints as the mining software degrades the performance of the users computer while also not offering them any benefit. This sort of user abuse is par for the course with explicitly closed source and Windows software.
Former CIA Director Avoids Trial
Former United States Centeral Intelligence Agency Director General David Petraeus has accepted a plea deal with the Department of Justice to avoid trial in a case that involves him leaking National Security secrets to his mistress. Petraeus plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge. Continue reading
Overdose Case Leads to Money Laundering Charges
A law enforcement investigation into drug overdoses in the Grand Forks, North Dakota area has lead to one of the case's defendants facing money laundering charges in addition to the drug related charges, for reasons that seem to entirely involve the particular defendant having at one point used Bitcoin for something. The 20 year old defendant's drug related charges include "conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances resulting in serious bodily injury and death." Continue reading
Havelock Still Offline
Havelock Investments, the Bitcoin "securities" trading website, which has in the past been home to ill fated ventures such as NeoBee and Cognitive Mining now has been offline for the declared purpose of "website updates" for a period approaching 10 days now. Today, March 2nd is the most recent estimate Havelock has provided as to when service might be restored. Their last announcement on this matter from Bitcointalk (February 25th, 2015): Continue reading
Police Chief Arrested for Soliciting Prostitution
Stephen Johnson, commander of the official state apparatus for dispensing violence in Miami Gardens, has been arrested and fired after soliciting a prostitute as part of another law enforcement agency's sting operation. Johnson's predecessor was removed from office for overseeing a period of history in which the Miami Gardens police department singled out a law abiding citizen and his employer for harassment hundreds of times. The dismal situation in Miami Gardens is just a small part of the larger trend in the United States where law and law enforcement have become irreparably detached from actual justice.
Anti-Integrity Advocates Push Netflix to Break Contracts
Two days after the United States Federal Communications Commission decided to bring "Network Neutrality" regulations to the Internet in their country, an editorial in Ars Technica is advocating that prominent corporate advocate for these changes Netflix use the rules to break its contracts with a number of Internet Service Providers by having regulators impose more favorable terms for them in their relationships with other businesses. Continue reading
Chinese Yuan Passes Australian, Canadian, Hong Kong Dollars in International Use
A new report by SWIFT shows that the Chinese Yuan (RMB) rising in use for international payments compared to a number of other nationally issued currencies. This surge highlights the constant instability suffered by users of fiat currencies as the increased internationalization of the RMB makes it more difficult for the users of other alternative national currencies to market their chosen value token to new users. The RMB is presently the fifth most popular national currency for payments usage behind the United States dollar, the Euro, the Pound which was formerly Sterling, and the Japanese Yen. The Yen is particularly vulnerable to losing adoption and popularity versus the RMB as it is only 0.52% more popular as of the time covered by this SWIFT report.
Missouri State Auditor Dies of Gunshot Wound
Missouri state auditor and leading candidate for Missouri Governor Tom Schweich died today1 of a gunshot wound described as "self inflicted" by the media. Schweich was a notable force against corruption in government battling efforts to squander the bountiful resources collected from taxpayers at every turn. His death was "confirmed by his office" mere hours after placing numerous phone calls to media outlets requesting and scheduling interviews for later today. Four months ago he was elected to a second term as auditor by 73 percent of voters.
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