"Property seizure is a profitable practice for local law enforcement agencies, long used to deprive mobsters and drug kingpins. But the police can also take personal goods away from citizens who haven't been proven guilty of a crime. Ray Suarez talks to Sarah Stillman who investigated civil forfeiture for The New Yorker." Continue reading →
"The federal government sent a strong signal to Bitcoin traders earlier this year when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seized an account belonging to Mt. Gox, the most popular exchange for people to buy and sell the crypto-currency. It was unclear at the time just how much currency the government confiscated. But a new filing in Baltimore federal court shows the feds seized $2,915,507.40 held in an account controlled by Dwolla, a third-party payment platform similar to PayPal. The funds belonged to Mutum Sigillum LLC, a U.S. subsidiary of Tokyo-based Mt. Gox. It’s unclear what will become of the funds." Continue reading →
"According to legal scholar Harvey Silverglate, each day the typical American commits three acts that could be treated as felonies by a sufficiently creative federal prosecutor. On a typical day the FBI formally authorizes informants and provocateurs on its payroll to commit fifteen unambiguous crimes. The ATF and DEA also run huge networks of informants, but those agencies will not disclose any information about the number of undercover operatives they employ or the criminal activities in which they may be involved. In his book 'Our Enemy, the State,' Albert Nock observed that government doesn’t seek to abolish crime, but rather to monopolize it." Continue reading →
"Here is a sign that life is getting complicated for U.S. taxpayers with assets abroad: More of them are deciding they are better off cutting official ties with America. Daniel Kuettel, a Colorado native who lives near Zurich, says he gave up his U.S. citizenship in October because he feared he wouldn't be able to get a mortgage now that some Swiss banks are cutting ties with American clients. 'It was a really difficult decision. I had to think about what was best for me and my family, to reduce the risk,' says Mr. Kuettel, a 41-year-old software developer. He says his income was below the limit the U.S. allows overseas taxpayers to exempt and he owed no U.S. taxes." Continue reading →
"Swiss police have arrested a gang of fake officers who stole tens of thousands of dollars from tourists in the Lake Geneva area this summer. The gang, made up mainly of Romanian nationals, had been posing as officers in some of the top tourist spots in Geneva and neighbouring Vaud, police said on Friday. The set-up was always the same: a plain-clothed member of the gang would ask an unsuspecting tourist for directions, only to be interrupted by two accomplices wearing police uniforms demanding to see his and the tourist's identification. With the tourist's wallet in hand, the phony officers discretely pocketed the cash inside." Continue reading →
"'There is a lot of ruin in a nation,' wrote Adam Smith. His point was that it takes a long time for nations to fall, even when they’re dead on their feet. And he was certainly right. America took its fatal blow in 1913, one hundred years ago; it just hasn’t hit the ground yet. This is a slow process, but it’s actually fast compared to the Romans. It took them several centuries to collapse. For all the problems America had prior to 1913 (including the unnecessary and horrifying Civil War), nothing spelled the death of the nation like the horrors of 1913. Here are the key dates." Continue reading →
"This stupid witch hunt which people inside the U.S. think is going after the uber rich 'off shoring' in 'tax havens' has done more to harm low and middle income 'targets' than anything I’ve seen them do down there in a long time. The comment by President Obama last week that they are paying to fix their infrastructure by 'repatriating taxes' is a LIE, it’s NOT 'taxes' It is fines and fees and penalties on paperwork nobody ever heard of outside the U.S. for the most part and they know it. If it were taxes it would even come close to being enough, as according to American Citizens Abroad, 82% of expats would owe zero taxes." Continue reading →
"For example, under a law recently approved by the parliament of the United Kingdom (the first country to sign an IGA), HM Revenue & Customs commits explicitly to impose the American FATCA law on British institutions. The costs of regulatory implementation by HMRC would fall on British taxpayers. In turn, UK financial institutions (and their customers) would bear hundreds of millions of pounds in costs for collecting the information for transfer to the IRS. The direct revenue benefit to the Exchequer? Zero. What is the U.S. obligated to provide in return? Nothing, as it happens. The IGAs have no clear status in American law." Continue reading →
"It’s been no secret that China views FATCA very unfavorably and negotiations towards compliance are going nowhere. It seems unlikely that the US would hit China with the 30% withholding tax for non-compliance. With China holding roughly $1.2 trillion in US Treasuries, it’s not as if it lacks its own leverage over the US government. This leaves the FATCA juggernaut stuck in a Sino-US standoff. It appears the US will have to either make serious concessions to win China over or back down on the 30% non-compliance tax. Should China stand its ground and not compromise on FATCA, it would punch a massive hole in global compliance." Continue reading →
"A West Virginia judge was arrested on Thursday and charged in federal court with attempting to plant evidence on a former lover’s husband and having him arrested for a crime he did not commit. Mingo County Circuit Judge Michael Thornsbury, 57, also was accused of appointing a business partner to be foreman of the grand jury investigating the husband, the indictment said. Thornsbury, Mingo County’s only circuit judge since 1997, was arrested on Thursday, according to a federal prosecutor. He was released after paying a $10,000 bond, according to court documents." Continue reading →