Bitcoin executive arrested for money laundering bailed for $1million

Posted by devil | Tuesday, January 28, 2014 | Posted in Bitcoin, Bitcoin executive arrested, Bitcoin money laundering, BitInstant, Charlie Shrem, Currency, John F Kennedy International Airport, Manhattan, money, New York, News, Shrem, Silk Road, zap

Bitcoin executive arrested for money laundering bailed for $1million as police accuse him of helping black market drug site Silk Road users trade illegal cash for the digital coins

Charlie Shrem, 24, was arrested at New York's JFK airport on Sunday
Shrem was an early investor in bitcoins and launched one of the most popular sites to exchange the digital currency
Shrem allegedly conspired with a Florida resident, Robert Faiella, who ran an illegal exchange, to sell more than $1million in bitcoins to users of Silk Road
Faiella's business 'funneled money into the site, called Silk Road' and Shrem also 'used him to get drugs for himself'

The vice chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, a trade group promoting the adoption of the digital currency, has been charged by U.S. prosecutors with conspiring to commit money laundering by helping to funnel cash to illicit online drugs bazaar Silk Road.

Charlie Shrem, who had financial backing from the Winklevoss twins and is well known as one of the bitcoin's biggest global promoters, was arrested on Sunday at John. F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan said on Monday.

Shrem, who was also charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, appeared in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Monday and was released on $1million bond.

Charged: Charlie Shrem (left), 24 - pictured with an unidentified person - was arrested at New York's JFK airport Monday morning and charged with money laundering

‘At this point the allegations in the complaint are simply allegations, and Mr. Shrem is presumed innocent,’ his lawyer Keith Miller said.

The 24-year-old entrepreneur, who lives above a bar he jointly owns in Manhattan that accepts bitcoins as payment, was CEO of BitInstant, a bitcoin exchange company that closed last summer.

Train derails in New York City, four killed, 63 injured

Posted by devil | Sunday, December 1, 2013 | Posted in New York, New York train derailed, News, zap

A suburban New York train derailed on Sunday, killing at least four people and injuring 63, including 11 critically, officials said.

All seven cars of the Metro-North train derailed off a large curved section of track at 7.20am. in New York about 100 yards (meters) north of Metro North's Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx borough, said Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for Metro North, a subsidiary of New York State's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

A spokesman for the city fire department confirmed the number of dead and said 11 people were in critical condition, six were in serious condition with non-life threatening injuries and another 46 sustained minor injuries.

The train was about half full at the time of the crash, with about 150 passengers, the MTA said.