US has man arrested in Singapore for unintentionally taking money from US citizens - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

Wandering the information superhighway, he came upon the last refuge of civilization, PoFo, the only forum on the internet ...

Crime and prevention thereof. Loopholes, grey areas and the letter of the law.
Forum rules: No one line posts please.
#15184986
Yet another story in the saga of the US extending their legal jurisdiction into other countries.

This story involves an African American financial trader who moved to Singapore and started a business there, an internet platform for the exchange of Bitcoin.

The US accused him of not having in place enough safeguards to prevent people in the US from being able to conduct trading through the company, since the business does not comply with US financial regulations.

Let's keep in mind that Bitcoin is actually just a form of information, which is traded like fiat currency. People in the US sent this company in Singapore money, and because of that the Justice Department in the US decided they have the right to press charges against a man in Singapore.

Arthur Hayes, the African American founder of BitMex was required to post $1.5 million cash bail to remain at his home in Singapore, while US criminal charges work their way through the courts. The company has already agreed to pay a $100 settlement to the CFTC, a US government financial regulatory department.

Keep in mind there was no fraud or theft that happened here, and the alleged misdoings happened outside of the US in another country. But still the US was easily able to get a man in Singapore arrested. He turned himself in, was presumably held for a few days until he was released on bail.
And presumably it is possible, if the court in Singapore gives its approval, he could be extradited to the US to face charges there.

Business Insider, One of the world's biggest crypto exchanges agrees to pay $100 million and block US users as part of a legal settlement, August 2021
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... d=msedgntp

Vanity Fair - The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin Billionaire Arthur Hayes
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/02 ... thur-hayes

I am questioning whether the US Justice Department is respecting rule of law and the concept of national sovereignty in the area of individual legal jurisdiction. At least from a civil liberties and Libertarian perspective, the question arises whether a government has the right to enforce its rules on individuals in a totally separate country.

Imagine you are running a business and, unknown to you, let's say some people in North Korea are circumventing the barriers you have in place and sending you money to buy information. The North Korean government than applies for an arrest warrant and the government where you are arrests you. You are accused of not following North Korean financial regulations and not creating enough of a barrier to try to prevent people in North Korea from doing business with you, even though most of your buyers are relatively anonymous.

If anyone really thinks about this, it will be obvious to them what the problem with this is, and the type of precedent this type of thing could set.

The US is enforcing its rules and laws on other people in other countries.


Let's also point out the significance of what this means. The company in Singapore is paying $100 million to the US government while at the same time agreeing to not do business with US citizens. Normally companies in other countries do not have a reason to pay a fine to the US government unless they want to continue to have access to the US market. This obviously does not seem to be the case here. Why is the company paying? Because they are afraid of legal action from the US. What does that tell you when a company in another country is afraid of legal action from the US? The US obviously has a huge amount of legal power extending into other countries.

The US Justice Department seems to be selectively applying its regulations, in some cases, as if they applied equally around the world instead of just within the US. And the courts in other countries don't seem to have a problem with that and are just arresting individuals, upon request from the US Justice Department, and having them extradited to the US to face criminal charges there.

Let's also keep in mind some of these rules that were violated were not even laws passed by the US Congress, but rather were rules issued by US bureaucrats, since some law delegated them the power to make rules to regulate some type of financial transaction.

I know some of you believe in "Global government" but do any of you see any big problem with this?
Israel-Palestinian War 2023

@JohnRawls No. Your perception of it is not. I g[…]

Russia-Ukraine War 2022

I'd be totally happy for us to send ground troop i[…]

Any of you going to buy the Trump bible he's promo[…]

There were formidable defense lines in the Donbas[…]