Is Russia going to start the final global crackdown on crypto?
Crypto is back in the news again, with the price of Bitcoin rising as high as 11,400 it’s now being discussed on a number of levels. New service providers like Blackwatch Digital are stepping up and providing services such as secured and insured crypto, brining institutional liquidity into the Blockchain ecosystem. While the fad came and went, serious coders have been building a high quality enterprise grade system that’s now being rolled out.
Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs is reportedly working toward implementing a new law that would allow law enforcement to seize Bitcoin and other digital assets, beginning in 2021, according to Russian news outlet RBC. Specifically, the new law would allow police to seize computers, hard drives or mobile devices containing cryptocurrency wallet addresses from individuals suspected of a crime. From there, authorities could then search through the contents of the devices and see about accessing the wallets and the cryptocurrencies they might contain.
This is interesting, considering that some say that the Russian government uses a complete abuse of power when it comes to assets they want to seize, or powers they want to do. You can read this post “Secret Life of a Foreign Agent” at Navalny.com to get an idea of graft, Russian style. Could the Crypto law be one of the biggest re-thefts in Russian government history? Interestingly, Russia has been a hotbed for Crypto. There are thousands of Crypto millionaires, mostly around Moscow, that 10 years ago were living on coins. Many of them now make traditional investments, some of them even in Pre IPO Unicorns. But what’s interesting about this Crypto law is that it seems that the Russian government is going after tokens. Why? It’s clear that due to the Russian Disaspora, and their refusal to tax the oligarchs, there are less and less tax bases to live off. State oil is the golden goose but as the Arabs have learned, you need a vibrant diverse economy, you can’t just live off the oil. That’s why countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and others – have diverse programs encouraging foreign investment into their barren desert oil rich lands. They are resource rich but culturally poor. Russia has become the same. Their spoils and resources are many but they are culturally poor. Russia is not an innovation hub. Consumer fraud is rampant. The funeral industry is so corrupt, filmmakers were threatened when making a documentary about it. Life in Russia is well, not like the 80s, it’s like the 1880s. “Oligarchs” (read: Fake Tsars) are living in posh mansions in communities like Rublyovka; and meanwhile the average pensioner doesn’t have enough money for food and healthcare.
Growing protests in the streets of Russia are growing in size and in power. Previously they were small in numbers, but as the numbers grow – Russian officials are doing more to stop them. Thousands of protestors have been arrested on fake charges, kept in jail for the ‘maximum’ 30 days in many cases, in order to frighten more people to protest.
And it’s not just in Russia – there are mass protests going on all over the world, including Hong Kong, Lebanon, and sporadically in the European Union (France, yellow vests). But what’s unique about Russia – they still are not part of the ‘one world system’ and so what happens in Russia is uniquely compelling. Meaning that, to contrast it with the United States where there are ‘protests’ – in the US it has been found that many protestors are in fact ‘paid to protest’ employees of financier George Soros. You can bet that protestors in Russia are not paid, and they are demonstrating at their own personal risk. They can be arrested, put on a blacklist, injured, or worse. Thugs likely hired by or working with the government will go into peaceful offices and literally beat and stomp on political protestors to the point complete humiliation.
The dye is a common antiseptic in Russia and has been used in protests there and in Ukraine. "It looks funny but it hurts like hell," Mr Navalny tweeted.It is not clear who carried out the attack, which happened near the offices of the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) that he founded. According to one report (in Russian) he was diagnosed with a chemical burn to the eye.
Could this Bitcoin move be an asset grab, as the government needs funding for the next wave of antidisestablishmentarianism? Not only that, Russia is now filling a void left by US forces leaving Syria, or as we might say colloquially, trapped in between a rock and a hard place. Russia has been supporting the Assad regime in Syria for a number of reasons, but now faces proxy enemy Turkey who is a close ally to Russia. It seems they will soon learn what is the real cost of useless foreign wars in the middle east, a complex region with 1,000 year old blood feuds genetically passed down from generation to generation. The conflict between Jews and Arabs goes back way before the United States even existed. Many ask, why does the US get involved? It’s certainly not about Oil, as there is plenty of Oil in the US and Canada to fuel the next generation of alternative fuel development. We all know the answer to that question but it’s the topic for another article. Some say that the US military is the first form of artificial intelligence:
If Russia is cracking down on Crypto including seizing assets you can bet this is part of a larger strategy. And there are many external factors to consider, because Russia has been a unique pro-Crypto country, the government has even subsidized Bitcoin mines with cheap energy. An FSB officer said “America had the internet – Crypto is ours (Russia).. “
Clearly, Russia will not make such a move without a clear calculated plan, as they are not desperate for money and are one of the only major superpowers without any external debt. They have domestic problems but on a macro level they are not suffering. They are not acting out of weakness.
Would other countries follow the lead if this were to happen? Would this be the beginning in a series of anti-Crypto laws in the last independent country in the world? Only time will tell, but we should stay tuned to this developing scenario very closely, as it will have global impact.
Top Dems are involved in the plundering of the Ukraine: new names, mind-boggling accounts. The mysterious ‘whistleblower’ whose report had unleashed the impeachment is named in the exclusive interview given to the Unz Review by a prominent Ukrainian politician, an ex-Member of Parliament of four terms, a candidate for Ukraine’s presidency, Oleg Tsarev.
Mr. Tsarev with Israel Shamir in Crimea
Mr Tsarev, a tall, agile and graceful man, a good speaker and a prolific writer, had been a leading and popular Ukrainian politician before the 2014 putsch; he stayed in the Ukraine after President Yanukovych’s flight; ran for the Presidency against Mr Poroshenko, and eventually had to go to exile due to multiple threats to his life. During the failed attempt to secede, he was elected the speaker of the Parliament of Novorossia (South-Eastern Ukraine). I spoke to him in Crimea, where he lives in the pleasant seaside town of Yalta. Tsarev still has many supporters in the Ukraine, and is a leader of the opposition to the Kiev regime.
Oleg, you followed Biden story from its very inception. Biden is not the only Dem politician involved in the Ukrainian corruption schemes, is he?
Indeed, John Kerry, the Secretary of State in Obama’s administration, was his partner-in-crime. But Joe Biden was number one. During the Obama presidency, Biden was the US proconsul for Ukraine, and he was involved in many corruption schemes. He authorised transfer of three billion dollars of the US taxpayers’ money to the post-coup government of the Ukraine; the money was stolen, and Biden took a big share of the spoils.
It is a story of ripping the US taxpayer and the Ukrainian customer off for the benefit of a few corruptioners, American and Ukrainian. And it is a story of Kiev regime and its dependence on the US and IMF. The Ukraine has a few midsize deposits of natural gas, sufficient for domestic household consumption. The cost of its production was quite low; and the Ukrainians got used to pay pennies for their gas. Actually, it was so cheap to produce that the Ukraine could provide all its households with free gas for heating and cooking, just like Libya did. Despite low consumer price, the gas companies (like Burisma) had very high profits and very little expenditure.
After the 2014 coup, IMF demanded to raise the price of gas for the domestic consumer to European levels, and the new president Petro Poroshenko obliged them. The prices went sky-high. The Ukrainians were forced to pay many times more for their cooking and heating; and huge profits went to coffers of the gas companies. Instead of raising taxes or lowering prices, President Poroshenko demanded the gas companies to pay him or subsidise his projects. He said that he arranged the price hike; it means he should be considered a partner.
Burisma Gas company had to pay extortion money to the president Poroshenko. Eventually its founder and owner Mr Nicolai Zlochevsky decided to invite some important Westerners into the company’s board of directors hoping it would moderate Poroshenko’s appetites. He had brought in Biden’s son Hunter, John Kerry, Polish ex-President Kwasniewski; but it didn’t help him.
Poroshenko became furious that the fattened calf may escape him, and asked the Attorney General Shokin to investigate Burisma trusting some irregularities would emerge. AG Shokin immediately discovered that Burisma had paid these ‘stars’ between 50 and 150 thousand dollar per month each just for being on the list of directors. This is illegal by the Ukrainian tax code; it can’t be recognised as legitimate expenditure.
At that time Biden the father entered the fray. He called Poroshenko and gave him six hours to close the case against his son. Otherwise, one billion dollars of the US taxpayers’ funds won’t pass to the Ukrainian corruptioners. Zlochevsky, the Burisma owner, paid Biden well for this conversation: he received between three and ten million dollars, according to different sources.
AG Shokin said he can’t close the case within six hours; Poroshenko sacked him and installed Mr Lutsenko in his stead. Lutsenko was willing to dismiss the case of Burisma, but he also could not do it in a day, or even in a week. Biden, as we know, could not keep his trap shut: by talking about the pressure he put on Poroshenko, he incriminated himself. Meanwhile Mr Shokin gave evidence that Biden put pressure on Poroshenko to fire him, and now it was confirmed. The evidence was given to the US lawyers in connection with another case, Firtash case.
What is Firtash Case?
The Democrats wanted to get another Ukrainian oligarch, Mr Firtash, to the US and make him to confess that he illegally supported Trump’s campaign for the sake of Russia. Firtash had been arrested in Vienna, Austria; there he fought extradition to the US. His lawyers claimed it is purely political case, and they used Mr Shokin’s deposition to substantiate their claim. For this reason, the evidence supplied by Shokin is not easily reversible, even if Shokin were willing, and he is not. He also stated under oath that the Democrats pressurised him to help and extradite Firtash to the US, though he had no standing in this purely American issue. It seems that Mrs Clinton believes that Firtash’s funds helped Trump to win elections, an extremely unlikely thing [says Mr Tsarev].
Talking about Burisma and Biden; what is this billion dollars of aid that Biden could give or withhold?
It is USAID money, the main channel of the US aid for “support of democracy”. First billion dollars of USAID came to the Ukraine in 2014. This was authorised by Joe Biden, while for Ukraine, the papers were signed by Mr Turchinov, the “acting President”. The Ukrainian constitution does not know of such a position, and Turchinov, “the acting President” had no right to sign neither a legal nor financial document. Thus, all the documents that were signed by him, in fact, had no legal force. However, Biden countersigned the papers signed by Turchynov and allocated money for Ukraine. And the money was stolen – by the Democrats and their Ukrainian counterparts.
Two years ago, (that is already under President Trump) the United States began to investigate the allocation of 3 billion dollars; it was allocated in 2014, in 2015, in 2016; one billion dollars per year. The investigation showed that the documents were falsified, the money was transferred to Ukraine, and stolen. The investigators tracked each payment, discovered where the money went, where it was spent and how it was stolen.
As a result, in October 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a criminal case for “Abuse of power and embezzlement of American taxpayers’ money”. Among the accused there are two consecutive Finance Ministers of the Ukraine, Mrs Natalie Ann Jaresko who served 2014-2016 and Mr Alexander Daniluk who served 2016-2018, and three US banks. The investigation caused the USAID to cease issuing grants since August 2019. As Trump said, now the US does not give away money and does not impose democracy.
The money was allocated with the flagrant violation of American law. There was no risk assessment, no audit reports. Normally the USAID, when allocating cash, always prepares a substantial package of documents. But the billions were given to Ukraine completely without documents. The criminal case on the embezzlement of USAID funds had been signed personally by the US Attorney General, so these issues are very much alive.
Sam Kislin was involved in this investigation. He is a good friend and associate of Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer and an ex-mayor of New York. Kislin is well known in Kiev, and I have many friends who are Sam’s friends [said Tsarev]. I learned of his progress, because some of my friends were detained in the United States, or interrogated in Ukraine. They briefed me about this. It appears that Burisma is just the tip of the scandal, the tip of the iceberg. If Trump will carry on, and use what was already initiated and investigated, the whole headquarters of the Democratic party will come down. They will not be able to hold elections. I have no right to name names, but believe me, leading functionaries of the Democratic party are involved.
Poroshenko was aware of that; he gave orders to declare Sam Kislin persona non grata. Once the old man (he is over 80) flew into Kiev airport and he was not allowed to come in; he spent the night in detention and was flown back to the US next day. Poroshenko had been totally allied with Clinton camp.
And President Zelensky? Is he free from Clintonite Democrats’ influence?
If he were, there would not be the scandal of Trump phone call. How the Democrats learned of this call and its alleged content? The official version says there was a CIA man, a whistle-blower, who reported to the Democrats. What the version does not clarify, where this whistle-blower was located during the call. I tell you, he was located in Kiev, and he was present at the conversation, at the Ukrainian President Zelensky’s side. This man was (perhaps) a CIA asset, but he also was a close associate of George Soros, and a Ukrainian high-ranking official.
He is also the man the investigation of Sam Kislin and of the DoJ had led to, the Finance Minister of Ukraine at the time, the man who was responsible for the embezzlement of three billion US taxpayer’s best dollars. The DoJ issued an order for his arrest. Naturally he is devoted to Biden personally, and to the Dems in general. I would not trust his version of the phone call at all.
Daniluk was supposed to accompany President Zelensky on his visit to Washington; but he was informed that there is an order for his arrest. He remained in Kiev. And soon afterwards, the hell of the alleged leaked phone call broke out. Zelensky administration investigated and concluded that the leak was done by Mr Alexander Daniluk, who is known for his close relations with George Soros and with Mr Biden. Alexander Daniluk had been fired. (However, he did not admit his guilt and said the leak was done by his sworn enemy, the head of president’s administration office, Mr Andrey Bogdan, who allegedly framed Daniluk.)
This is not the only case of US-connected corruption in Ukraine. There is Amos J. Hochstein, a protege of former VP Joe Biden, who has served in the Barack Obama administration as the Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources. He still hangs on the Ukraine. Together with an American citizen Andrew Favorov, the Deputy Director of Naftogas he organised very expensive “reverse gas import” into Ukraine. In this scheme, the Russian gas is bought by Europeans and afterwards sold to Ukraine with a wonderful margin. In reality, gas comes from Russia directly, but payments go via Hochstein. It is much more costly than to buy directly from Russia; Ukrainian people pay, while the margin is collected by Hochstein and Favorov. Now they plan to import liquefied gas from the United States, at even higher price. Again, the price will be paid by the Ukrainians, while profits will go to Hochstein and Favorov.
In all these scams, there are people of Clinton and spooks who are fully integrated in the Democratic Party. A former head of CIA, Robert James Woolsey, now sits on the Board of Directors of Velta, producing Ukrainian titanium. Woolsey is a neocon, a member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), pro-Israel think-tank, and a man who relentlessly pushed for Iraq war. A typical Democrat spook, now he gets profits from Ukrainian ore deposits.
One of the best Ukrainian corruption stories is connected with Audrius Butkevicius, the former Minister of Defence (1996 to 2000) and a Member of the Seimas (Parliament) of post-Soviet Lithuania. Mr AB is supposedly working for MI6, and now is a member of the notorious Institute for Statecraft, a UK deep state propaganda outfit involved in disinformation operations, subversion of the democratic process and promoting Russophobia and the idea of a new cold war. In 1991 he commanded snipers that shoot Lithuanian protesters. The kills were ascribed to the Soviet armed forces, and the last Soviet President Mr Gorbachev ordered speedy withdrawal of his troops from Lithuania. Mr AB became the Minister of Defence of his independent nation. In 1997 the Honourable Minister of Defence “had requested 300,000 USD from a senior executive of a troubled oil company for his assistance in obtaining the discontinuance of criminal proceedings concerning the company’s vast debts”, in the language of the court judgement. He was arrested on receipt of the bribe, had been sentenced to five years of jail, but a man with such qualifications was not left to rot in a prison.
In 2005 he commanded the snipers who killed protesters in Kyrgyzstan, in Georgia he repeated the feat in 2003 during the Rose Revolution. In 2014 he did it again in Kiev, where his snipers killed around a hundred men, protesters and police. He was brought to Kiev by Mr Turchinov, who called himself the “acting President” and who countersigned Joe Biden’s billion dollars’ grant.
In October 2018 the name of Mr AB came up again. Military warehouses of Chernigov had caught fire; allegedly thousands of shells stored for fighting the separatists had been destroyed by fire. And it was not the first fire of this kind: the previous one, equally huge, torched Ukrainian army warehouses in Vinnitsa in 2017. Altogether, there were 12 huge army arsenal fires for the last few years. Just for 2018, the damage was over $2 billion.
When Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine Anatoly Matios investigated the fires, he discovered that 80% of weapons and shells in the warehouses were missing. They weren’t destroyed by fire, they weren’t there in the first place. Instead of being used to kill the Russian-speaking Ukrainians of Donetsk, the hardware had been shipped from the port of Nikolaev to Syria, to the Islamic rebels and to ISIS. And the man who organised this enormous operation was our Mr AB, the old fighter for democracy on behalf of MI6, acting in cahoots with the Minister of Defence Poltorak and Mr Turchinov, the friend of Mr Biden. (They say Mr Matios was given $10 million for his silence).
The loss was of Ukrainian people, and of US taxpayers, while the beneficiaries were the Deep State, which is probably just another name for the deadly mix of spooks, media and politicians.
Goldman Sachs has avoided staying out of the insider trading spotlight for about a year. But on Friday, new court documents reveal that an investment banker at the firm's New York branch was arrested for his alleged involvement in an insider trading scheme that generated $2.6 million in illicit profits, according to Bloomberg.
Bryan Cohen, a vice president at Goldman, was arrested Friday by the Feds for leaking "nonpublic information concerning impending corporate transactions" over a three year period in exchange for cash and gifts, stated the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a formal complaint via the US District Court Southern District of New York.
The insider trading scheme realized $2.6 million in illicit gains were tied to at least two different companies, including a possible takeover deal that sent Syngenta soaring in 2015, and Arby's 2017 takeover of Buffalo Wild Wings.
"Throughout that period, Cohen, who was employed at a large international bank ("Investment Bank A") carried out the scheme by misappropriating from his employer material nonpublic information concerning impending corporate transactions," court documents read.
The SEC alleges that Cohen shared the nonpublic information with George Nikas, an NYC restaurateur who owns GRK Fresh with three locations in Manhattan, was also charged by federal prosecutors for making the trades.
In exchange for making the trades, the SEC alleges that Nikas paid out Cohen "a share of the profits and/or other benefits."
News of the insider trading scheme at Goldman broke on Saturday morning. The investment bank also saw two employees in 2018 charged by the SEC for similar schemes.
Last May, Woojae "Steve" Jung, a Goldman TMT Vice President, was charged with securities fraud for using inside information about the investment bank's clients to make $140,000 in illicit profits on 12 deals, while using a co-conspirator in South Korea to execute the trades.
In August last year, a former Goldman analyst leaked nonpublic information about upcoming mergers to NFL star Mychal Kendricks. The SEC has since charged them both.
There's no indication via LinkedIn that Cohen has been fired from Goldman. Bloomberg notes that he's been placed on leave, which means he'll be fired in the coming weeks.
Crypto people globally are like voters in the US – either you are all in or think it’s a scam. There’s no convincing a Democrat that it’s actually the Clinton’s and the Biden’s that are guilty of corruption, and many other crimes. You can throw facts in their face and they will just retort with pictures of their cat or insult you. Faced with evidence disproving their opinions, they revert to screaming and running around in circles. Similarly, you can show establishment bankers any kind of evidence that Cryptocurrency is the future of finance, and they will similarly scream and run around in circles.
The US banking system is the largest and was once one of the most dynamic in the world. It enabled a generation of growth fueling the biggest economic boom known in modern history. But as the world changes, the US Banking system is aging and the big banks aren't looking to repair it anytime soon. ..BAC is covered widely in the financial media, and is held by many mutual funds. One could even say that it's over-covered. What we're looking at in this article isn't bashing, it's the word on the street. Anecdotal evidence is powerful, as we have watched the Cryptocurrency market grow from nothing to a multi-billion dollar industry. Unfortunately, it hasn't taken off as expected. But we believe it will.
Two U.S. lawmakers want the Federal Reserve to consider creating a digital dollar. In a letter sent to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) and Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) outline concerns they have about risks to the U.S. dollar if another country or private company creates a widely used cryptocurrency, and ask whether the central bank is looking into creating its own version. First reported by Bloomberg Law, the letter details how the Fed has the right to create and manage U.S. currency policy.“The Federal Reserve, as the central bank of the United States, has the ability and the natural role to develop a national digital currency,” the Congressmen wrote, adding: “We are concerned that the primacy of the U.S. Dollar could be in long-term jeopardy from wide adoption of digital fiat currencies. Internationally, the Bank for International Settlements conducted a study that found that over 40 countries around the world have currently developed or are looking into developing a digital currency.”
Unfortunately for MGI there are tons of competitors. Just to name a few; Xoom, CurrencyFair, InstaReM, OFX, PayPal, Remitly, Ria Money Transfer, Transfast, TransferMate, TransferWise, Travelex, Western Union, WorldRemit, XE. Then there are small shops that can be only a website like this one we found DiscountCurrencyTransfers.com. As stated on the website:The "Cartel" as they are referred to, a.k.a. "The Big FX Banks" Continue to overcharge individual senders of foreign currency by as much as 15% or more. They pay the fines and continue these abusive practices, because, they are so big, they can do what they want. You're probably thinking there's no way out - but there is. We have a solution that can save you up to 90% on foreign transactions. The barriers to entry are very low, so it's easy for a new company to setup shop and compete. To make matters even worse, banks are feeling the pressure of the competitors so banks are becoming more competitive themselves.
So if these banks and other financial services companies are so terrible, why hasn’t Crypto taken off more? That’s what we have always asked, but there is a clear answer: investors are afraid to get hacked. Security of large quantities of digital assets is what remains as the last puzzle to be solved before we can count Crypto assets in Trillions, rather than Billions.
Crediblock has been working on this solution and is now in the process of launching the service at several exchanges, banks, and other companies that have large quantities of Crypto; it’s called Black Watch Digital.
We are accepting investors for a Series A (Must be accredited) at a $15 Million valuation, which we think is a steal considering the value of the solution they are providing.
We believe in this solution because we have been hacked ourselves. Being the victim of a hack like Mt. Gox is no fun. Whether you get your money back is not the point, waiting 3 years to get .30c on the dollar with Refco was unpleasant torture. Knowing that your assets are safe and secure is the only thing that lets you sleep at night if you have large quantities of digital assets. Or to say differently, without security of your digital assets it’s like trading without stops and limits.
Crediblock is working on a top secret Crypto algorithm for proprietary trading. Hopefully, as the strategy is successful, the assets will grow. As we grow the strategy we will start to demand our counterparties utilize something like Black Watch Digital.
No, this isn’t the only security and custodial solution there are many. However, many of them are tied to the custodian, i.e. Coinbase has their own solution. We believe this is a conflict. It’s best to have an independent objective service provider for the same reasons it’s important to have an independent auditor – they do their job and nothing more. If audits were internal you can bet auditors would never find any problems.
Another reason we like Black Watch Digital more than other solutions – the approach is a cybersecurity approach developed from a Big Data perspective; it doesn’t involve Cryptocurrency. There’s no ‘token’ or asset itself to buy into. Cryptography is involved just as with any encryption. The multi-signature / mutli-technology / multi-layer approach allows for multiple points of failure meaning one of the layers could be breached but the asset would be secure. Or to put it plainly, this is the kind of digital security the CIA uses.
We believe that as such solutions proliferate out into the market, it will make the Cryptocurrency landscape all that more robust. Who knows, maybe we will one day make our own! For now though, we are looking out for securing those counterparties we might trade with. Losing money trading is one thing, it’s manageable and a known risk of trading. Losing money due to a hack or stupidity is quite another – it’s totally preventable!
NOTE: This is a solution for exchanges, funds, miners, and other institutions who have large quantities of digital assets. This is not a solution for individual users. If you are interested in using the Black Watch Digital solution please contact your custodian or exchange and ask them to implement it.
