Bitcoin Still Booming, Despite Challenges
Despite headlines centered on challenges facing the cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is still booming with some of the highest mining and transaction rates in its history. The digital currency has yet to find the “killer app” that would make it an essential part of the average consumer’s Internet toolkit. Several bitcoin-related services shut down in recent months, […]
Vermont Man Charged By SEC For Operating Ponzi Scheme
Homero Joshua Garza of Brattleboro, Vermont faces federal charges alleging that he operated a Ponzi scheme that bilked thousands of investors. The SEC charged Garza and his two Bitcoin-mining companies, GAW Miners LLC and ZenMiner LLC, with running the scheme. The companies sold $20 million worth of what appeared to be shares in Hashlets, digital […]
Texas Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme Operator Pleads Guilty To Securities Fraud
In a landmark case that marked the intersection of cryptocurrency and traditional securities law, Trendon Shavers of McKinney, Texas, pleaded guilty to securities fraud for operating a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme using Bitcoin. Known as the founder of Bitcoin Savings & Trust (BS&T), Shavers promised investors consistent, high-yield returns, misleading many into believing they were part […]
Texan Charged In First Bitcoin Securities Fraud Case
Trendon Shavers of McKinney, Texas, operator of Bitcoin Savings and Trust, was charged yesterday with defrauding investors in what authorities are calling the first federal criminal securities fraud case arising from a bitcoin-related Ponzi scheme. Shavers is charged with misappropriating roughly 146,000 of 764,000 bitcoins, at the time worth over $4.5 million, which he had […]
Texas Judge Awards $40.7 In Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme Case
Last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Amos Mazzant, a federal judge in Texas, ordered Bitcoin Savings and Trust and its owner, Trendon Shavers, to pay $40.7 million after the SEC proved that the company, which sold investments using bitcoins, was in reality a Ponzi scheme. According to Mazzant, Shavers “knowingly and intentionally” used the company “as […]