Securities Fraud Charges Laid After 72 Bitcoin HYIP Sites Seized and Shut Down

The Manhattan's district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., has seized and shut down 72 sites for promoting high yield investment programs (HYIP) with bitcoins. At least one of the main sites, Bitcoinhyip.org, was charged with securities fraud.

Vance revealed the news during a keynote address at the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists’ (ACAMS) AML Risk Management Risk Management One of the most common terms utilized by brokers, risk management refers to the practice of identifying potential risks in advance. Most commonly, this also involves the analysis of risk and the undertaking of precautionary steps to both mitigate and prevent for such risk.Such efforts are essential for brokers and venues in the finance industry, given the potential for fallout in the face of unforeseen events or crises. Given a more tightly regulated environment across nearly every asset class, One of the most common terms utilized by brokers, risk management refers to the practice of identifying potential risks in advance. Most commonly, this also involves the analysis of risk and the undertaking of precautionary steps to both mitigate and prevent for such risk.Such efforts are essential for brokers and venues in the finance industry, given the potential for fallout in the face of unforeseen events or crises. Given a more tightly regulated environment across nearly every asset class, Read this Term Conference on Monday, where he also warned about Bitcoin Bitcoin While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that Read this Term's capabilities to enable financial crime.

HYIP scams lure investors by promising unrealistically high returns. They can take the form of Ponzi schemes where investors are paid with the principal belonging to other investors. Often, or the operator can simply make off with or squander the funds.

An undercover agent e-mailed bitcoinhyip.org and was told he "could not lose money in the investment." Vance continued:

"All you had to do, they said, was send them one bitcoin, and they’d send you three bitcoins in return, within 48 hours. When our undercover investigator transferred a bitcoin to the operator’s bit-address, they kept it, and he never heard from them again."

The bitcoinhyip.org website has since been replaced by www.seizedbymanhattanda.org.

Vance participated in last year's BitLicense hearings in New York and has played a major role in money laundering investigations involving large banks, including BNP Paribas SA and Standard Chartered.