Texas man Trendon Shavers has finally admitted that he indeed was the brain behind Bitcoin Ponzi scheme named Bitcoin Savings and Trust (BTCST). As per a report by the Wall Street Journal, the entire racket was so big that at a certain time it actually had 7 percent digital currency in....

Victims of the largest scam in Bitcoin's brief history can find solace today as the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged fraud charges against Trendon T. Shavers of McKinney, TX for operating BTCST (Bitcoin Savings and Trust), a Ponzi scheme advertised as a financial security involving....

Trendon Shavers earned a lenient sentence through good faith efforts to right the wrongs he did while improperly managing the Bitcoin Savings & Trust, Bitcoin’s first federal securities case, according to his sentencing judge. That’s news the Bitcoin Community, which has long viewed Shavers....

Trendon Shavers, the person convicted of operating a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme through Bitcoin Savings & Trust receives 18 month prison sentence. The person behind the first ever Bitcoin securities fraud in the United States is going to spend the next 18 months in prison. Trendon Shavers, the....

Charles Ponzi. Trendon Shavers, aka "Pirate@40," was arrested this morning on securities fraud and wire fraud charges stemming from his involvement in a Bitcoin-related Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator pays returns to its investors from new....

Bitcoin Savings & Trust (BS&T) operator Trendon Shavers has plead not guilty to fraud charges in a New York District court. If convicted, Shavers faces up to 40 years in prison, as well as millions of dollars in potential fines and penalties. Shavers is charged with one count of securities fraud....

Trendon Shavers, the man who the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said was running a bitcoin Ponzi scheme, has been ordered to pay a $40 million dollar fine by U. S. Magistrate Judge Amos L. Mazzant for his founding of the "Bitcoin Savings and Trust (BTCST)" organization, which was....

Trendon Shavers, a Texas man who ran a scam investment scheme called Bitcoin Savings and Trust, has been arrested in his home state. The charges filed against Shavers today are one count of securities fraud and one of wire fraud, with each having a maximum penalty of 20 years and potential fines....

Bitcoin Ponzi scheme perpetrator Trendon Shavers has plead guilty to securities fraud, a decision that reverses plea of not guilty submitted in March. Shavers faced up to 20 years in prison for defrauding investors out of an estimated $4.5m while operating Bitcoin Savings & Trust (BS&T). The....

The question of whether Bitcoin can be considered “money” from both a legal and tax perspective in the United States has been in the news a great deal recently, especially with multiple Judges ruling that Bitcoin was indeed money and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seeming to contradict the....

A 33-year-old Texan man pleaded guilty to running a Ponzi scheme involving bitcoins, making it the first ever U. S. criminal fraud case related to the cryptocurrency. Texas native Trendon Shavers has admitted to operating a Ponzi scheme running $4.5 million worth of bitcoins, Reuters reports.....

A judge in Texas has ruled that bitcoin is a currency or form of money, which gives the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the go-ahead to sue Ponzi scheme operator Trendon Shavers. A document signed by US magistrate judge Amos L. Mazzant details the SEC's case against Shavers, founder and....

Bitcoin Savings & Trust (BS&T) operator Trendon Shavers, who has allegedly been operating a bitcoin scam and Ponzi scheme, has plead not guilty during his fraud trial in a New York District court. He is charged with one count of securities fraud and one count of wire fraud. Shavers could pay....

The first federal securities fraud case involving a bitcoin investment scheme has ended with perpetrator Trendon Shavers receiving a sentence of 18 months in prison. In addition, Shavers was assessed penalties including three years of supervised release, a $100 special assessment, $1.2m in....

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged a Texas man and his company for defrauding investors using a bitcoin Ponzi scheme. According to the SEC, Trendon T. Shavers, founder and operator of Bitcoin Savings and Trust (BTCST), allegedly used the monikers 'Pirate' and....

Convicted Ponzi scheme operator Trendon Shavers is now insinuating the major unidentified debtor cited in his defense against the SEC may have been Mark Karpeles, CEO of the now-defunct bitcoin exchange Mt Gox. The claims, while veiled, stem from a new interview for the popular industry podcast....

In a landmark case involving the first-ever federal securities fraud involving bitcoin, a Texas man identified as the operator behind a Ponzi investment scheme has received a sentence of 18 months in prison. Trendon Shavers, aka “Pirate@40” was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the charge of....

A Texas man charged with defrauding consumers through an illicit investment vehicle has been ordered to pay more than $40m in fines by a federal judge. The Thursday ruling brought to close a case launched last July that drew headlines at a time when many in the mainstream US media were only....

In September, Texan man Trendon Shavers admitted to conducting a $4.6M Bitcoin Ponzi scheme. On the popular bitcointalk.org forum, he promised investors a 7 percent weekly return on sums of more than 25K BTC. Pirateat40 hastily shut down the scheme in mid-2012, leaving investors in the dark....

There are several high profile criminal and civil cases involving Bitcoin in the United States. In some of these the prosecution is clearly applying law to Bitcoin transactions that might not apply. But in the case of Trenton Shavers and his Bitcoin Savings and Trust this turned out not to be....

Bitcoin is trying hard to grow up. As we have seen, when the price of bitcoin rises, there inevitably comes real money to invest in its future. There are still many skeptics out there that don't believe in bitcoin. They don't think that it is real money. They don't think that it has any value.....

Raphael Nicolle, the elusive founder and CEO of Bitfinex, “invested” in a number of Ponzi schemes in 2012 and loudly supported Trendon Shavers who was recently sentenced to 18 months in prison for running a “classic Ponzi scheme.” We can further reveal that Raphael Nicolle, who, in 2012, claimed....

Welcome to the CoinDesk Weekly Review 26th July 2013 - a regular look at the hottest, most controversial and thought-provoking events in the world of digital currency through the eyes of skepticism and wonder. Your host ... John Law. Too good to be true - and those are just the names. The....

While the bitcoin economy is currently backed by $284m in venture capital and has a growing band of high-profile supporters, it still operates in a regulatory grey area in its largest market. Unsurprisingly, just how the US will and should choose to regulate the digital currency is the subject....

News surrounding Bitfinex gets hairier, some warring views surface on bitcoin and its functions, and Colombia’s first digital exchange closes its doors. Want to catch up on the latest digital currency news? Take a look at the stories below. BITFINEX. Following a $72 million dollar hack that....

With a Court in Manhattan sentencing a Bitcoin scammer to one and half years in prison, experts say it is a move in the right direction and would instill a higher level of sanity within the digital currency ecosystem. Several schemes surrounding the crypto world has taken advantage of the growth....

Law enforcement is catching up with criminals who use bitcoin to escape detection for their crimes. The imprisonment of Ross Ulbricht in February 2015 marks the most visible proof that criminals cannot hide their online activities. Czech national Thomas Jiikovsky was suspected of laundering $40....

As it is known, Bitcoin is a digital currency, which works through online transfers. However, physical Bitcoins were created by a bitcoin enthusiast, Casascius. Each physical bitcoin has its personal code in order to detect a number of bitcoins online. Can bitcoins be considered as real money....

Bitcoin price surpassed $17,000 for the first time since December 2017. The price of Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed $17,000 for the first time since December 2017, continuing its current uptrend. The rally comes after BTC broke out of the previous parabola, which initially caused concerns.Three factors....