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Thread: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

  1. #76
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by kschang View Post
    Heh, they not only confused 2 countries, but kept kept insisting multiple times on Puerto Rico :)

  2. #77
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline


  3. #78
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    CNN in spanish


  4. #79
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by kschang View Post
    Liberty Reserve had processed 55 million transactions during its lifetime, to the tune of 6 BILLION dollars, according to the May 2013 indictment. At the standard rate of 1 percent transaction fee that's at least six million in the pocket of Budovsky and leaders, not counting any other sort of fees.
    Check the math, 1% of $6Billion is $60 Million, not $6 Million......

  5. #80
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    kschang, please do search - replace for Puerto Rico(can), It should be Costa Rica everywhere.

  6. #81
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

  7. #82
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Full Video Press Release

    http://bloom.bg/11nq19s

  8. #83
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by littleroundman View Post
    ....
    Legitimate users
    ....

    Mitchell Rossetti, whose Houston-based ePayCards.com was one of several mainstream merchants that accepted Liberty Reserve's online-only currency, said his business still had about $US28,000 tied up in Liberty Reserve accounts.
    ....
    Haha, who are they kidding ?, They knew perfectly who used their VIRTUAL debit cards and what for :)

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  10. #84
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    2 FinCen documents published today:


    Notice of findings: http://www.fincen.gov/statutes_regs/...ding-Final.pdf


    And Notice of Proposed Rule-making, which is most interesting, looks like FinCen trying to enforce their licensees to refuse and terminate accounts
    of any individual/company who processed transactions meant for Liberty Reserve:
    http://www.fincen.gov/statutes_regs/...NPRM-Final.pdf

  11. #85
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by Gregg View Post
    Check the math, 1% of $6Billion is $60 Million, not $6 Million......
    OOPS! Fixed.
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  12. #86
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    And another article from El Pais, Spain.(In English) The arrests were made in Madrid, with the Spanish authorities collaborating with the US. Who said "offshore" is safe?

    And don't you just love the Title? They don't seem to have any confusion about the nature of "the industry"

    Spain and US authorities dismantle “PayPal of organized crime”

    Spain and US authorities dismantle

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  14. #87
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by NikSam View Post
    ...
    How any of it is honest ? Maybe Budovsky marriage is for CR citizenship only, he just needed to run away from US.
    Am I psychic or what ? ;)

    Liberty Reserve founder accused of marriage fraud | World news | guardian.co.uk

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  16. #88
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by NikSam View Post
    The Guardian is a broadsheet British newspaper and reporting is considered to be extremely reliable.

  17. #89
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by NikSam View Post
    kschang, please do search - replace for Puerto Rico(can), It should be Costa Rica everywhere.
    Oops, my brain had a Freudian slip... more like a plate shift. :P
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  18. #90
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    yeah, one little thing sometimes spreads so it is hard to stop.

    One russian blog 2 days ago published a photo of Budovsky which in fact was a photo of an unrelated person (Arthur Levine)
    - that's the image which comes up on Arthur in google image search.

    couple hours later, that picture was on Russian NTV channel in news report.

    A bit later german TV picked on it.

    And some newspapers printed it next day.


    Man, poor guy, or maybe he has a lawsuit chance ;)

  19. #91
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by NikSam View Post
    It seems that there was a marriage deal and she was not forced and accepted the money so I don't think that marriage can be considered as a fraud. Maybe she wants more money now so thats why she opened his mouth to get more bribes... LOL

  20. #92
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by okosh View Post
    Would not be the first time that a pay processor was basically a ponzi....
    Anyone remember Altergold??...
    LR was not really a ponzi and it could stay online longer if feds didn't close it. LR was illegal but sustainable and many trusted exchangers accepted it till the time of his closure! Altergold was an unsustainable pay processor and has an affiliate programm offerig $25 per referral and more from their transfers.

  21. #93
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by Fgold View Post
    It seems that there was a marriage deal and she was not forced and accepted the money so I don't think that marriage can be considered as a fraud. Maybe she wants more money now so thats why she opened his mouth to get more bribes... LOL
    Sham marriage is SERIOUS fraud and CAN result in revocation of citizenship.

    Sham marriage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    A well-known FBI/CIA agent, who risked her life for the US while pregnant, going undercover and busted several terrorist cells after 9/11, lost her own citizenship when it was discovered she got her citizenship through a sham marriage.

    Nada Nadim Prouty - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    ---
    A MLM Skeptic (not a Cynic) covering scams, critical thinking, and psychology
    http://amlmskeptic.blogspot.com

  22. #94
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by kschang View Post
    Sham marriage is SERIOUS fraud and CAN result in revocation of citizenship.

    Sham marriage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    A well-known FBI/CIA agent, who risked her life for the US while pregnant, going undercover and busted several terrorist cells after 9/11, lost her own citizenship when it was discovered she got her citizenship through a sham marriage.

    Nada Nadim Prouty - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    According to US laws its serious fraud but not sure about what Costa Rica laws says about Sham marriage.

  23. #95
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by Fgold View Post
    It seems that there was a marriage deal and she was not forced and accepted the money so I don't think that marriage can be considered as a fraud. Maybe she wants more money now so thats why she opened his mouth to get more bribes... LOL
    Do not know the laws of Costa Rica if marriage for the money is considered a crime by itself, but it is an immigration fraud to arrange a marriage in attempt to gain citizenship. Revocation of citizenship, deportation, ban on entering the country again are usual forms of punishment, some countries even have jail sentences for that, some countries punish both parties.

  24. #96
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by NikSam View Post
    Do not know the laws of Costa Rica if marriage for the money is considered a crime by itself, but it is an immigration fraud to arrange marriage in attempt to gain citizenship. Revocation of citizenship, deportation, ban on entering the country again are usual forms of punishment, some countries even have jail sentences for that.
    I know and its never easy to prove that was a "fake" marriage just for money. Not many countries excepting US and UK have explicit laws regarding that type of crime.

  25. #97
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quite serious, according to another article on TicoTimes:

    Lawyer gets 186 years for fake marriage scam / News / Top Story / More news / Costa Rica Newspaper, The Tico Times

    Yes, a Costa Rican lawyer for 186 YEARS for arranging 30+ fake marriages, at least one "victim" had his ID stolen and suddenly found himself "married" a few months later.

    So yes, it's serious.
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  26. #98
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by NikSam View Post
    It appears that this was a ruse to avoid extradition to the US. Didn't do him much good did it?

  27. #99
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    Quote Originally Posted by Fgold View Post
    It seems that there was a marriage deal and she was not forced and accepted the money so I don't think that marriage can be considered as a fraud. Maybe she wants more money now so thats why she opened his mouth to get more bribes... LOL
    You're entirely missing the point.

    Budovsky was based in Costa Rica because it DOESN'T have an extradition treaty with the USA.

    His being married to a Costa Rican citizen gave him automatic entitlement to remain in the country.

    If the marriage is shown to be a sham, Costa Rica will deport him from the country, meaning he has no protection from being extradited

    Budovsky also renounced his American citizenship and, by virtue of the marriage,apparently then became a Costa Rican citizen.

    If that is the case and his Costa Rican citizenship is renounced, he then becomes stateless, which is a separate problem in itself.
    The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

  28. #100
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    Re: Liberty Reserve owner arrested, charged with money laundering, website offline

    The Guardian.co.uk is reporting


    Liberty Reserve founder accused of marriage fraud


    Alleged money-launderer Arthur Budovsky may have paid $800 to marry Costa Rican food vendor in bid to avoid extradition


    Arthur Budovsky under police guard after his arrest in Spain. Photograph: EPA
    The man who allegedly founded currency transfer firm Liberty Reserve may have paid a Costa Rican woman to marry him so he could get citizenship in that country, authorities say. Costa Rica has no extradition treaty with the United States,

    The deputy director of judicial investigations, Gustavo Vega, said officials were still investigating the 2010 marriage between millionaire Arthur Budovsky and a woman who local media identified only by her last names, Valerio Vargas.

    The Costa Rican newspaper La Nacion said the woman had a food stand outside the government's immigration offices in the capital, San Jose.

    The woman was quoted by the paper as saying Budovsky paid her $800 to marry him and promised they would get a divorce after two years. She said they were still married.

    Budovsky renounced his US citizenship after deciding to set up in Costa Rica. He and another man, identified as Azzeddine el Amine, were arrested on Friday at a Madrid airport while trying to return to Costa Rica. They are in jail awaiting a hearing on extradition to the US.

    US federal prosecutors charged seven people on Tuesday, including Budvosky and el Amine, with running what amounted to an online, underworld bank that handled $6 billion for drug dealers, child pornographers, identity thieves and other criminals. Prosecutors said it might have been the biggest money laundering scheme in US history.

    US authorities say Liberty Reserve, a currency transfer and payment processing company based in Costa Rica, allowed customers to move money anonymously from one account to another via the internet with almost no questions asked.

    They said the enterprise was staggering in scope. Over about seven years, Liberty Reserve processed 55 million illicit transactions worldwide for 1 million users, including 200,000 in the United States. The network charged a 1% fee on transactions through "exchangers" - middlemen who converted actual currency into virtual funds and then back into cash.

    Costa Rica's director of judicial investigations, Francisco Segura, acknowledged that Costa Rica was an attractive country for US criminals because they could obtain Costa Rican citizenship easily and cheaply, and were protected from being extradited to the US.

    Public security minister Mario Zamora said after a meeting with the US ambassador, Anne Andrew, on Wednesday that the two countries would start work on an extradition treaty for suspects in organised crime cases.

    But the Supreme Court president, Zarella Villanueva, said such a treaty would take a long time to materialise because it would require constitutional changes that have to be approved by the US Congress.
    The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

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