[Clips] Two Brevard County men accused of catering to criminals

[R.A. Hettinga]

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  Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 18:33:23 -0400
  To: Philodox Clips List <clips at philodox.com>
  From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] Two Brevard County men accused of catering to criminals
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<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-bk-brevardmoney042707,0,4502786,print.story?coll=orl-home-headlines>

  Orlando Sentinel

  Two Brevard County men accused of catering to criminals moving money

  Jim Leusner

  Sentinel Staff Writer

  April 27, 2007, 4:14 PM EDT

  Two Brevard County men and two digital currency businesses they operated in
  Melbourne have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C.,
  accused of running an unregulated financial network which catered to
  criminals moving money.

  A four-count indictment handed up Tuesday and made public today charged
  E-Gold Ltd., Gold & Silver Reserve Inc. and owners Dr. Douglas L. Jackson,
  of Satellite Beach; Reid A. Jackson, of Melbourne; and Barry K. Downey, of
  Woodbine, Maryland. Each was charged with conspiring to lauder monetary
  instruments; conspriracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting
  business; operating an unlicensed money transmitting business; and
  transmitting money without a license in Washington, D.C.

  The indictment was announced by Jeffrey Taylor, the U.S. Attorney for the
  District of Columbia, and the Justice Department. Officials said the three
  will surrender in Washington at a later date.

  "Douglas Jackson and his associates operated a sophisticated and widespread
  international money remitting business, unsupervised and unregulated by any
  entity in the world, which allowed for anonymous transfers of value at a
  click of a mouse," Taylor said. "Not surprisingly, criminals of every
  stripe gravitated to E-Gold as a place to move their money with impunity.
  As alleged in the indictment, the defendants in this case knowingly allowed
  them to do so and profited from their crimes."

  A call to E-Gold and Gold & Silver Reserve offices was not immediately
  returned this afternoon.

  The probe was the result of a 2 1/2-year probe spearheaded by the U.S.
  Secret Service in Orlando, along with IRS, FBI and other state and local
  police agencies. Federal prosecutors also obtained a restraining order and
  seized millions of dollars in 58 accounts believed to be used in money
  laundering and the operating of unlicensed money transactions.

  The indictment charged that "EGold" digital currency functioned as an
  alternative payment system and was purportedly backed by stored physical
  gold. It charged that customers needed only to provide an e-mail address to
  open an account and that no other customer information was verified. The
  indictment accused some customers of using fictitious names such as "Mickey
  Mouse," "Donald Duck" and "No Name" and could conduct international
  transactions without any government regulation.

  Because of that, it became a "highly favored method of payment" by
  investment scammers, credit card and identity fraud thieves and sellers of
  Internet child pornography, authorities said.


  --
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  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
  44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
  "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
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  experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'