Cryptocurrencies have many use cases. Unfortunately for Martin Marsich, paying bail is not one of them. The FBI rejected his attempt to post bail with $750,000 worth of various altcoins, primarily because of the market volatility and price crash such a sell-off could trigger.
FBI Rejects Altcoin-Bail Scheme
It is evident criminals tend to have a knack for cryptocurrencies. There are dozens if not hundreds of instances in which criminals have used either Bitcoin or an altcoin to launder money, evade taxes, or otherwise cause harm. Those situations have been well-documented in the past, and it seems there will be no shortage of future stories involving crime and cryptocurrency.
One Martin Marsich attempted to do something rather clever with cryptocurrency. Marsich attempted to pay his $750,000 bail with the various cryptocurrencies in his portfolio. On paper, there is no reason not to allow such a transaction, yet the FBI is not on the same page. Selling such a large amount of coins could trigger major price fluctuations, after all.
As such, Marsich will have to resort to other means of paying this bail. For those wondering why it is such a high amount, he was convicted of hacking Electronic Arts’ systems. The Justice Department and the FBI claim he infiltrated EA’s systems related to the popular FIFA franchise. By successfully stealing $324,000 worth of digital goods, he made a lot of money very quickly.
Although it seems Marsich has not pleaded guilty to these charges, trying to pay one’s bail with cryptocurrency is rather unusual. Even so, it appears this approach will become more commonplace as time progresses. Cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular despite the falling prices of Bitcoin and altcoins.
Although the FBI has some experience with confiscating cryptocurrencies and maintaining control of them, this latest “deal'” was of no interest. The agency cited “liability issues”, which could pave the way for future issues when using cryptocurrencies for bail postings. They did agree to have Marsich sell his cryptocurrency on the open market, although doing so would not necessarily bode well for the cryptocurrencies in question.
All of this goes to show that cryptocurrencies continue to pose problems when trying to use them as real-world money. Although posting bail is a very unusual use case for cryptos, this story demonstrates that there are a lot of concerns over paying for anything with this new type of money.
Image(s): Shutterstock.com
3 Comments
I think they mostly use fiat (laundered through a corrupt banking system) for terror financing, though.
I’m an elderly gentleman, closing in on 60 years of age. My son introduced me to Crypto in late 2012. After doing a lot of research in Btc I felt strongly that It has a lot of growth and potential ahead of it. So my son and I built my 1st rig and I started mining in January 2013, pulled $5,000 from my IRA and bought Btc at $13.44 and have never looked back since. The sweetest sound that I’ve ever heard was the clink of my 1st mined Bitcoin way back then. That was as satisfying a note as there ever was on any musical scale. Nothing but happy days ahead since. Don’t get me wrong, there have been bumps in this Crypto highway, the demise of the Silk Road, Mt Gox, DAO hack to name a few but as a HOLDer (holding on for the long duration) not a HODLer (hanging on for dear life) and not day trading, has rewarded me with quite a decent profit. It just takes a lot of patience (Sisu) and doing your research with due diligence. I have since invested in Ethereum (Dec 2015), Monero (Jan 2016) and lately Omisego (July 2017) all purchased from some of my profits from Btc to go along with my newly acquired free Bch and recently free Omg. I’m currently operating 3 rigs equipped with 6 gpus each. 2 mining Eth and 1 Monero for now, all of which will be re-evaluated after Metropolis kicks in to see which direction I go from here. So I ‘m back to doing more research in order to help with my next moves but I’ll always be a strong believer in Ethereum which is where I’ve made my money so far. HOLDing on to the rest for now. Btc $5,000-10,000, Eth $2,500- 5,000, Monero $200-400, Omg $100-1,000 no one ever really knows but MY research says yes and so far MY research has not proven me wrong. Bought Btc at $13.44, Eth at .80, Monero at .48, Omg at .43 Bch for free. No where to go but up for me. Just biding my time. It’s taken me over 4 and a half years to get here but I’ve made over $4,000,000 so far with just my original investment plus the cost of my rigs and I’m still sitting on a lot more. Taking a position and HOLDing is where the real profit is and it isn’t going to happen overnight. So if you want aggravation and ulcers go ahead and day trade, try and beat the Market I wish you luck but the real money comes with Research, HOLDing and Patience. I will stop here so I don’t bore you guys, but it is sure worth your time. in case you are interested in venturing into investing in Crypto and Digital Currencies, or perhaps you are trading them but you don’t understand what you are doing, Hope this advice helps because in the long run what it all comes down to, its just Eths, You and Me hopefully making the right decisions, feel free to get in touch with me, I will be sure to guide and assist you with any information you may need to invest in these new and unpopular crypto and digital currencies that are making waves at the moment (alvanabarranee@gmaildotcom)
I’m an elderly gentleman, closing in on 60 years of age. My son introduced me to Crypto in late 2012. After doing a lot of research in Btc I felt strongly that It has a lot of growth and potential ahead of it. So my son and I built my 1st rig and I started mining in January 2013, pulled $5,000 from my IRA and bought Btc at $13.44 and have never looked back since. The sweetest sound that I’ve ever heard was the clink of my 1st mined Bitcoin way back then. That was as satisfying a note as there ever was on any musical scale. Nothing but happy days ahead since. Don’t get me wrong, there have been bumps in this Crypto highway, the demise of the Silk Road, Mt Gox, DAO hack to name a few but as a HOLDer (holding on for the long duration) not a HODLer (hanging on for dear life) and not day trading, has rewarded me with quite a decent profit. It just takes a lot of patience (Sisu) and doing your research with due diligence. I have since invested in Ethereum (Dec 2015), Monero (Jan 2016) and lately Omisego (July 2017) all purchased from some of my profits from Btc to go along with my newly acquired free Bch and recently free Omg. I’m currently operating 3 rigs equipped with 6 gpus each. 2 mining Eth and 1 Monero for now, all of which will be re-evaluated after Metropolis kicks in to see which direction I go from here. So I ‘m back to doing more research in order to help with my next moves but I’ll always be a strong believer in Ethereum which is where I’ve made my money so far. HOLDing on to the rest for now. Btc $5,000-10,000, Eth $2,500- 5,000, Monero $200-400, Omg $100-1,000 no one ever really knows but MY research says yes and so far MY research has not proven me wrong. Bought Btc at $13.44, Eth at .80, Monero at .48, Omg at .43 Bch for free. No where to go but up for me. Just biding my time. It’s taken me over 4 and a half years to get here but I’ve made over $2,000,000 so far with just my original investment plus the cost of my rigs and I’m still sitting on a lot more. Taking a position and HOLDing is where the real profit is and it isn’t going to happen overnight. So if you want aggravation and ulcers go ahead and day trade, try and beat the Market I wish you luck but the real money comes with Research, HOLDing and Patience. I will stop here so I don’t bore you guys, but it is sure worth your time. in case you are interested in venturing into investing in Crypto and Digital Currencies, or perhaps you are trading them but you don’t understand what you are doing, Hope this advice helps because in the long run what it all comes down to, its just Eths, You and Me hopefully making the right decisions, feel free to get in touch with me, I will be sure to guide and assist you with any information you may need to invest in these new and unpopular crypto and digital currencies that are making waves at the moment (fred.richmond21@gmaildotcom)