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

Now specifically on Mayzus case, cause you brought it up,
a perfect example

Till December 2012 they called themselves UWC - United World Capital, and got themselves in trouble in Brazil, where they are not licensed as a broker or authorized in any way.
http://www.cvm.gov.br/port/infos/ATO...o%2012.482.doc

Neverless they been registered with CySEC and FSA , any country would require them to be registered / licensed to target their residents (unless their laws do not require to).
If Mayzus had the legal base to operate in any of those countries they would never had used LR for money transactions in those countries cause the local normal payment methods would be better than some anonymous processor in Costa Rica.

Originally Posted by littleroundman

I think FGold was referring to the actions of the US government as being those of "vultures"
It's a commonly pushed theory on the usual suspect HYIP ponzi forums that the whole Liberty Reserve thing was an illegal action by the US government.

I know. I was referring to the fact that it takes something created by men, such as law, justice, and law enforcement, to catch men, who prey upon other men.

As least "vultures" are honest in what they are: carrion eaters. Fraudsters are, by definition, pretending to be something NOT what they are.

Whoever it was who first said "There's no honour among thieves" ? wasn't far wrong.

Originally Posted by littleroundman

Whoever it was who first said "There's no honour among thieves" ? wasn't far wrong.

I seem to remember much the same thing being offered by now TG mod Shane Smith of nanaimogold(dot)com when e-gold was shut down.....

CR Wife of Liberty Reserve Culprit Wants Half

Yesenia Valerio Vargas (now 39 years old) agreed to marry the Ukrainian-born American, Arthur Budovsky, imprisoned on 24 May in Spain at the request of the United States. Budovsky was one of the main people behind the Liberty Reserve money laundering. liberty reserve is being called the largest money laundering scheme in history.
About $6 Billion in assets were taken from the house of Budovsky in Costa Rica and is going to be auctioned off. Yesenia Valerio Vargas and her lawyer are saying she is entitled to the spouses half. Nice……
Yesenia Valerio Vargas was paid $400 to marry Budovsky, which by all signs was an arranged marriage to grant Budovsky residency in order to help run the business out of Costa Rica.
“After two weeks in the country (the lawyer) introduced me to him, I married him (with Budovsky) and we both went on with our normal lives. I dated him about four times, leaving that to drink coffee, chatting, never came by car and never saw him wealthy.” But now that I know he has money I want some. :::laughing out loud:::
Great attitude, you did not have a real marriage and now do not want to work so you are taking a chance with the terrible Costa Rican legal system to potentially keep you from having to actually get a job to support your plethora of babies that you already popped out. Well Hmmmmm, thanks Yesenia for showing your true colors. You had an arranged marriage which if a gringo did it to get residency would be punished and is ILLEGAL...
....

URL: Costa Rica Wife of Liberty Reserve Culprit Wants Her Half | The Costa Rican Times

Also: Wife of Liberty Reserve founder to seek husband's Costa Rica assets / News Briefs / More news / Costa Rica Newspaper, The Tico Times

Tomorrow (Aug 6th) a court hearing will be held against Vladimir Kats, 41, and Mark Marmilev, 27 - New York residents and co-operators of Liberty Reserve who pleaded not guilty.

Judge: Denise Cote
United States District Court
Southern District of New York
United States Courthouse
500 Pearl Street
New York, NY 10007-1312


Anyone going ?

Please watch Pacer for updates and post here while this is going on.

Correction: Pretrial hearing moved to August 9, 2013 at 10:30 a.m.

Marmilev and Kats still in detention since arrest.

Court case #: 1:13-cr-00368

Originally Posted by NikSam

Tomorrow (Aug 6th) a court hearing will be held against Vladimir Kats, 41, and Mark Marmilev, 27 - New York residents and co-operators of Liberty Reserve who pleaded not guilty.

Judge: Denise Cote
United States District Court
Southern District of New York
United States Courthouse
500 Pearl Street
New York, NY 10007-1312


Anyone going ?

Please watch Pacer for updates and post here while this is going on.

Accusations of dirty contributions from Liberty Reserve to 2 political parties in Costa Rica are pilling up:

A legislator in Costa Rica brought up explosive accusations against two political parties during a debate on campaign reform. Jeanette Ruiz from the Citizen Action Party (PAC in Spanish) has insinuated that Liberty Reserve, a controversial money transmitter based in Costa Rica, donated money to fund the electoral campaigns of the Libertarian Movement and the powerhouse National Liberation Party (PLN in Spanish).

Read more at: Dirty Political Campaign Donations Alleged in Costa Rica

Next court conference set for November 8th

Civil Registry of Costa Rica will annul 304 marriages which were bona fide for naturalization,

Including one of Arthur Budovsky

Liberty Reserve scandal caused most of these investigations.

So, Budovsky cannot count on Costa Rica's protection.

URLs: Registro Civil solicitó anulación de 304 matrimonios de extranjeros - Noticias | Teletica
Matrimonio entre sospechoso de caso Liberty Reserve y una costarricense sería anulado - Nacional - Noticias | Teletica

PS: Budovsky's wife wanted half of what "her husband" has, how about half of his jail term ?

Re-Post from "In the news" thread


AML pressure on Costa Rica banks
One popular offshore destination becomes less offshore, in fall out of Liberty Reserve scandal:

The Asociación Bancaria Costarricense (ABC) – Costa Rican banking association – is asking customers of public and private banks to update as soon possible.
The measure is in prevention of bank fraud, money laundering and “terrorist financing”.

The information banks are required to have current is personal data like phone numbers, home address, occupation of the account holder, economic activity and source of income or funds, among other items.

Foreigners in Costa Rica who do not have a job, for instance, will be required to provide a financial statement by a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

- more: Costa Rica Bank Customers Required To Update Their Information | Q Costa Rica

Russia requested Costa-rica to stop extraditaron of Maxim Chuckarev (russian citizen involved in LR operations in CR) to US.

On Oct 03, Judge Douglas Duran Pavas (Criminal Court of Costa Rica) ruled in favor of extradition of Chuckarev to US.
Russia embassy requested to stop extradition, judge order can be opposed till Oct 24.


URL: Rusia pide a Costa Rica no extraditar a Estados Unidos a imputado por lavado Maxim Chukharev

10-31-13

USDOJ: Co-founder of Liberty Reserve Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering in Manhattan Federal Court

Thanks Don, how did i miss it? i was keeping an eye on the case.

Interesting that Katz also had 1 count of receiving child pornography - thats is min 15 years jail time,
and marriage fraud, so he also got US citizenship in bona fide marriage?


Time for him to rat on the rest, to reduce what is coming for him.

The United States Dept of Justice

US authorities are working hard in this case just for getting expensive fines from courts.... Their main goal is that and they don't care anything about victims who lost their funds. Punnishing them won't give any cent for those who lost money. Making a real justice is giving back the money stolen to their victims and not making profits from third party crimes...

Originally Posted by Fgold

US authorities are working hard in this case just for getting expensive fines from courts.... Their main goal is that and they don't care anything about victims who lost their funds. Punnishing them won't give any cent for those who lost money. Making a real justice is giving back the money stolen to their victims and not making profits from third party crimes...

Since such a large % of the funds in LR accounts is stolen from others or got there through illegal means like hyip who cares if account holders ever see a cent??....

Originally Posted by okosh

Since such a large % of the funds in LR accounts is stolen from others or got there through illegal means like hyip who cares if account holders ever see a cent??....

Very good point. I certainly endorse that opinion.

Those "victims" free to file their claims, so authorities can list set of laws they broke, maybe even charge or fine some of those "honest/legit"
(but unlicensed in jurisdictions where they offered services) forex brokers and anonymous debit card suppliers :)


Another thing - what money ? it was virtual currency, what money you talking about ?
whatever was in banks on Budovsky's and the gang names, it was a loot, it was never enough and it was not meant by LR to backup its virtual currency with real assets.

Originally Posted by path2prosperity

Very good point. I certainly endorse that opinion.

Here is the key part which is proof....

“Vladimir Kats, by his own admission, helped to create and operate an anonymous digital currency system that provided cybercriminals and others with the means to launder criminal proceeds on an unprecedented scale,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General

Ok, clarified some from court docs,

Kats bona fide wife was the one who became naturalized and not him , still up to 5 years in jail but he keeps the citizenship:


LR_KATS_count5.jpg



And here is on child porn:


LR_KATS_count4.jpg

Originally Posted by okosh

Since such a large % of the funds in LR accounts is stolen from others or got there through illegal means like hyip who cares if account holders ever see a cent??....

I care about victims who are the largest % of LR account holders. The largest ammount of funds were in the minority of account holders who were the biggest exchangers, hyip owners and other criminals. LR was the number one processor used by ponzis in the last 5 years since e-gold was gone and you know welll that ponzis always ripp off a large ammount of victims. Only few % made huge profits from such illegal activities.

Originally Posted by NikSam

Those "victims" free to file their claims, so authorities can list set of laws they broke, maybe even charge or fine some of those "honest/legit"
(but unlicensed in jurisdictions where they offered services) forex brokers and anonymous debit card suppliers :)


Another thing - what money ? it was virtual currency, what money you talking about ?
whatever was in banks on Budovsky's and the gang names, it was a loot, it was never enough and it was not meant by LR to backup its virtual currency with real assets.

I don't think victims will feel free to send their claims to someone who shutted down a service which were widely used by many people to make online trasactions. Most of them didn't know that service was operating ilegally and also didn't care to know if it was or was not legal. They just wanted to use a service to move their "free money" without any kind of limitations...

The money exist in banks "from" and "to" their official exchangers who got their domains seized and also from many other exhangers. I don't know exactly about the ammounts but its possible about several milllions who were lost by people who used exchangers to buy LR...

Originally Posted by Fgold

I care about victims who are the largest % of LR account holders. The largest ammount of funds were in the minority of account holders who were the biggest exchangers, hyip owners and other criminals. LR was the number one processor used by ponzis in the last 5 years since e-gold was gone and you know welll that ponzis always ripp off a large ammount of victims. Only few % made huge profits from such illegal activities.

So then you agree that there is no need at all to care about account holders here since they all deserve to lose their scam money??...

Originally Posted by okosh

So then you agree that there is no need at all to care about account holders here since they all deserve to lose their scam money??...

Why would you like to classify all LR funds as scam money?? It's a virtual fund but was purchased with real money through exchangers just like you buy chips in casino with real money. If such "casino" was ilegall or not it does not matter, specially for gambler's addicters who represent the largest percentage of LR account holders and were victims of such "scam game"...