President Donald Trump made more than $1 billion from cryptocurrency ventures, while the vast majority of regular buyers lost hundreds of millions of dollars ! Will Congress look into this ? I doubt this happens very often!
As soon as we have another Democratic president, Republicans will demand ethics and accountability.
And higher interest rates, they are nothing if not consistent.
To me it’s obvious a pay for play money scheme with foreign national players! This should be simple thing to investigate ! If problem were democratic official for this enormous amount they would be fighting to the microphone to call for one! Isn’t there department that looks into this embarrassment that’s independent ?
Partly. Or it could be insider trading, or just outright fraud. There are a lot of possibilities.
It’s corruption, plain and simple. From here, but it’s old news. Nobody cares, or at least the corrupt party in power doesn’t.
Days before Trump’s second inauguration, the United Arab Emirates’ “Spy Sheikh” secretly bought 49 percent of the Trump family’s crypto firm. Months later, the administration handed over America’s most sensitive AI chips technology to the United Arab Emirates despite national security concerns. This isn’t just profiteering; it’s a betrayal of U.S. national security.
Yep. The level of corruption is staggering, brazen and unprecedented in the history of the presidency. Without equal anywhere or anywhen with obvious exceptions like Putin’s Russia and North Korea. All of it very predictable when you vote a confirmed and convicted 34 time fraudster who has a decades long reputation as a con man and inveterate selfish liar. Never forget that half the country voted for this with full knowledge. And would do so again given the chance, of that I have no doubt.
I’m sure he’s inventing all new types of fraud and corruption that have never even been considered before and likely falls outside of the realms of considered law. Will there be accountability? No, of course not. Because this is what half the country wants and knowingly voted for.
Well said.
'Murica!
Is there a reason for crypto to exist other than tax avoidance and money laundering? What legitimate use does it have?
None. The answer to your question is “None.” At least nothing that couldn’t just as easily be done with normal currency and be above board. Places like Kickstarter and GoFundMe can accept cryptocurrencies for community funded projects but there’s really no compelling reason to do that if criminality isn’t already involved.
Crypto is a tool of criminals used by criminals for criminality. I briefly considered things like “bribery” (as Trump has discovered), or purchasing illegal services or products online at places like the former silk road (is that still a thing?). But those are really just different forms of money laundering. Not to worry, you’re not missing anything.
There’s also the classic “pump and dump” scheme.
I’m pretty sure Trump pardoned the silk road guy, but I have no idea if it is still a thing.
My understanding on this is that he made the 1.5B by selling the meme coins, not investing in them. People bought them because they thought he was going to get elected and the value would skyrocket. In fact, it tanked. His usual bait and switch of putting his name on something, but not actually having any skin in the game.
About as much as they look into anything else he does, and the final result will be frowny faces.
I still love catching Heather Cox Richardson’s podcast. The repeatedly says that rank corruption garners bipartisan jeers and resentment, and can historically spark sea change (my words, but she is married to a commercial fisherman). The numbers are overwhelming.
I stand where I always do, though:
- They’re watching Raiders of the Lost Ark
- We’re watching Star Wars
- We’ve seen Raiders
- They’ve never seen, will never see, and never would see Star Wars
When we speak to them, it literally represents a language they’ve never heard before, and finds no synaptical home in their li’l MAGA-brains.
The information silos are nigh unto perfect. And Trump’s bro’s buying up so much of the mainstream media does two things:
- Closes any gaps in the aforementioned information silo, and
- Creates the kind of textbook Anti-Trust case that Trump’s DOJ wouldn’t look into in a million years
If it’s such an 80-20 issue, why aren’t the masses in the streets, singing songs, and-a carrying signs?
Step away from your favorite news sources, and restrict yourself to a few of theirs.
Raiders v. Star Wars
This part I doubt. Trump has never shown signs of creativity or intelligence. He’s committed numerous crimes but none of them were original.
It can be used to fund dissident movements, whistleblowers, getting people out of dangerous situations in foreign countries, etc. Those would be considered criminal by the governments in those jurisdictions but most of us wouldn’t consider that to be a moral crime. It’s basically when you want to hide transactions from the government or other people with power over you which usually means you’re buying drugs or people or guns but it could also mean you’re buying a means to escape a terrible situation. I would say that most uses like this are things that we would regard as crimes and problematic. Probably well over 90%. Of course most crypto holders are just using it as a investment asset which is more neutral.
There is a category that I think is a legitimate use of crypto which is anonymization in the face of incredibly pervasive corporate tracking. There are so many corporations that know so much about us and they are able to track us by as many means including financial ones and using crypto can be a way to purchase legitimate services while trying to hide your identity for a purely privacy reasons that aren’t actually covering up anything morally problematic.
Anyway to the topic of the thread I think it was obvious the time that Trump was creating these meme coins specifically so that foreign actors could buy up most of the stock of these coins and then Trump would sell first and cash them out and then the coin would crash. Basically money laundering disguised as a pump and dump. Trump is so thoroughly corrupt and criminal that he essentially uses one crime, a pump and dump, to mask another crime, money laundering, as payment for yet another vastly more serious crime, selling state favor or state secrets to other hostile State actors. It’s actually kind of incredible when you think about it. It’s a whole chain of incredible corruption that’s pretty easy to see and yet we’re barely even talking about it. Almost certainly those Trump coins were bought up by people like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and who knows who else for favors from Trump at the cost of the American people.
Why do people keep on thinking that crypto is “untraceable”? It’s the most traceable monetary system ever. The system is literally based on full traceability of every transaction ever.
Factual questions: who can trace crypto transactions? Can the IRS? FBI?
This is an unreasonable test of intelligence. So many crimes have been committed in the past that it is almost impossible to come up with new ones.
And I don’t think pump and dump schemes are so easy to pull off.