Libertyreserve. Scam Or What? Whom Do You Trust You Money? |
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Daniel Joel |
Mar 1 2009, 10:29 AM
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Source : ww.ecommerce-journal.com/news/11437_lr
Until the moment when LibertyReserve started thinking of its publicity the only thing the users knew about LR was that the system operated long enough and that had already changed several offshore shelter. Probably when the company changes its headquarter it manages to leave all the balances and multi-level money laundries in each offshore however the system fails to get rid of the reputation gained by its founders and owners. For a long time they lived in the shadow and tried to stay unnoticed. However the Internet community started to show up LR in its true colors and very soon everybody could read online that when you work with libertyreserve you trust your money to the scammers that have already been charged with large scale fraud. Who pulls the strings of power and controls LR, what is the name of the person who can disappear with the money of LibertyReserve payment system, who was running a fraud structure dealing with money-laundering and today manages a payment system? We will try to answer all those questions and reduce the number of the question-marks surrounding LibertyReserve, a payment gateway designed for HYIPs.
Arthur Budovsky was arrested in New York in 2006 and charged with money laundering and unlicensed activity
Our investigation is based on the facts presented on various websites and actively discussed on the forums, and especially on the investigation of dgc.wetpaint.com. We have already written about the old interview with the owner of LibertyReserve. Probably that time he didn�t know what name to choose to introduce the owner of the system to the users. Ambitions or something else had made the immigrant from Ukraine, a country famous for the carder mob, to confess that it was he and one more person who had founded LibertyReserve.
Actually, Arthur Budovsky is person of little interest. He was born and brought up in Kiev (Ukraine), later he left the country for Germany and then for the USA. Arthur was building his business on the financial operations. And probably he could expand his activity unless his arrest. Arthur Budovsky was arrested in New York in 2006 and charged with money laundering and unlicensed activity.
However it was interesting to note that together with the owner of LibertyReserve police has arrested some Vladimir Kats, aka Ragnar Danneskj�ld. (If you remember Ragnar Danneskj�ld was a character in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged. And he was far from being a good boy. A true pirate, a robber with ideological principles, he was the opposite or negative of Robin Hood.) Probably it would be interesting for our readers to know that this name has already been mentioned before. Being more specific we can say that Ragnar Danneskj�ld was the owner of PlanetGold.com and it was he who had interviewed Arthur Budovsky (http://web.archive.org/web/20030416025128/planetgold.com/interview.asp?SPID=08248138). Hence Arthur Budovsky was somehow connected with Vladimir Kats who had probably participated in creation of LR.
Those two young men acted very simply. Having launched and promoted GoldAge.net, one of the first large exchange services on the Internet, they have founded an offshore company in Panama and opened a bank account. Using those two tools those two friends conducted all kinds of the financial cashless operations.
The turnover was constantly growing, demand for load/unload of e-currencies was increasing and those two guys from Eastern Europe were becoming rich very fast. And certainly their abilities and experience couldn�t fail to develop into creation of LibertyReserve payment processor which had more functions and features comparing to e-gold. And the main thing is that it was designed especially for their business. However the USA is not the country where one could launder money and stay unnoticed for a long time. And as we have already said Arthur Budovsky and Vladimir Kats were arrested in 2006. By that time their exchanger had been working with such e-currencies as e-gold, e-Bullion, 1mdc, Liberty Reserve.
On July 27th, 2006 the New York County District Attorney's office announced the indictment of two alleged principals of Gold Age in Brooklyn, New York (for allegedly violating Article 13-B of New York State Banking Law) after a six month sting operation that began in January 2006. The two defendants, Arthur Budovsky and Vladimir Kats are currently represented by attorney Igor Niman.
The company has changed its address 4 times during 5 years
Article 13-B of the New York banking law states that it is a felony to transfer money without a license if one knowingly transmits $250,000 or more in a year from a single client in a year; $25,000 or more in 30 days; and $10,000 or more in a single transition. *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Age
Many businesses and one den of the scammers
And though Budovsky and Kats were arrested in 2006 the address of the financial laundry GoldAge.net has also been specified in contact details of Liberty Reserve.
A variety of LR�s headquarters really amazes: New York (2106 Bath Avenue, Suite #101 Brooklyn, NY 11214 USA), Nevada, Nevis, and finally Panama. The company has changed its address 4 times during 5 years, why? The answer is evident: the company owner�s didn�t want to be jailed. By the way, the full address in New York is not just a fortuity. And we recommend you to remember it.
In January 2007 the company removed all the addresses including the mailing ones and left only a contact form and the following phone number 917 331-9604 which appeared to have a New York City area. A quick check in Google has lead to web site AboutUs.com showing this phone number and the following address:
James Bell +1 917-690-8126 PO Box 940538 Rockaway Park NY 11694 US
CNAM entries, Reverse Phone search Area Code :917 Exchange : 690 City : NWYRCYZN01 State : NY NY - NEW YORK (NWYRCYZN01)NY - NEW YORK (NWYRCYZN01)646-459-8436 dial up local assess number http://www.aboutus.org/LibertyReserve.com
James Bell, who is he? The search has returned us to the far 2002 when Ragnar Danneskjold has interviewed James Bell who appeared to be new CEO of Gold-Age.com who had bought that business from its former owner Parker Bradley. (http://www.planetgold.com/interview.asp?SPID=91334475). However it is impossible to view this page at the moment as the link is dead.
Here is just a part of the interview:
The sale and re-birth of Gold-Age
Monday, April 22, 2002 Interview with Gold-Age.com new CEO, James Bell, and former CEO, Parker Bradley, conducted by Ragnar Danneskjold, editor - Planetgold.com. planetgold: Today, Planetgold is pleased to interview James Bell, of Gold-Age (www.Gold-Age.net) planetgold: The three of us are sitting here, in Albany. This is a closing for the sale of Gold-Age. Welcome, James and Parker. Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed. James: It's my pleasure! Parker: Same here. planetgold: So what's the deal here with Gold-Age? James: I am acquiring Gold-Age from Parker Bradley. Thank you for bringing us together and brokering the arrange
One more interesting finding: the AboutUs.com wiki also contains the same Liberty Reserve/Gold-Age.net contact number for Asianagold ( http://www.asianagold.com/ ) with Anthony Hawkins as a contact person. Asianagold is an exchanger exchanging e-gold, Pecunix, Liberty Reserve, e-Bullion, 1mdc, and WebMoney. Don�t you find this list a little bit familiar?
In October 2007 LibertyReserve came with new address in Costa Rica and new management. May be the management didn�t changed however the names charged for sure: Mr. Joul Lee, Marketing Manager and Eric Paltz, founder of LibertyReserve. By the way the last name is present on the site today.
However, there were some companies that had an interesting connection with LibertyReserve. One of them is LibertyImpact newsletter operated by Vlad aka Ragnar, with direct links to GoldAge and LibertyReserve. Please pay attention to the address: 2106 Bath Avenue
Starting from 2003GoldAge has also the same address: 2106 Bath Avenue.
In 2005 the Internet community is introduced to the Cambist.net web site. Try to guess what address is specified? Bingo! Again: 2106 Bath Avenue Address in Brooklyn.
A popular address one may say? No the answer is simpler: the same owners.
In the press release from the Manhattan District Attorney's office, July 27th, 2006 regarding the arrests of the GoldAge operators, http://manhattanda.org/whatsnew/press/2006-07-27.shtml
DISTRICT ATTORNEY - NEW YORK COUNTY News Release July 27, 2006 Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today the indictment of two people on charges of operating an illegal money transmittal business. Eight subsidiary businesses operated by the defendants have also been indicted. The defendants are ARTHUR BUDOVSKY and VLADIMIR KATS. The defendants� illegal money transmittal business is GOLDAGE INC. Also indicted today are other companies operated by BUDOVSKY and KATS: GOLDAGE HOLDING INC., ECSN INC., EXECUTIVE COMMERCIAL SERVICES INC., INTERNETWORK MANAGEMENT INC., GGN INC., B TO B MARKETPLACE INC. and MGA INTERNATIONAL INC. The defendants operated out of their Brooklyn apartments. Both defendants addresses were listed:
Arthur Budovsky: DOB: 10/24/1973 Address: 118 Battery Avenue, Suite 4B, Brooklyn, New York 11209
Vladimir Kats: DOB: 01/04/1972 Address: 40 Oceana Drive West, Unit 4B Brooklyn, NY 11235
If you plug ALL of these above mentioned addresses into any Map software on the Internet, you find they are all just a few miles apart.
(A) 7400 Shore Front Pkwy Arverne, NY 11693 --FastGold, B to B Marketplace
( 2106 Bath Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11214--GoldAge, LibertyReserve, GDCAonline.org, Cambist, Asianagold
© Vladimir Kats home apt. address: 40 Oceana Drive West, Unit 4B, Brooklyn, NY 11235
(D) Arthur Budovsky home apt. address: 118 Battery Avenue, Suite 4B, Brooklyn, New York 11209
These two shots came from a finance.e-gold forum January of 2005. Message 42 and 55, http://osdir.com/ml/finance.*****er/20...1/msg00042.html http://osdir.com/ml/finance.*****er/20...1/msg00055.html
(J Murray Wrote) I recently contacted John Kyle of cambist.net in order to purchase e-gold. I received an email from John with instructions to make the payment out to "B-To-B MarketPlace Inc." and mail to:
B-to-B MarketPlace Inc 7400 Shore Front Pkwy #2E Arverne, NY 11692
I mailed the money order USPS Prioirty Mail on 12/30/05 and it arrived on 1/3/05. Since then I have left voice messages and emailed John Kyle with no response. Has anyone here had dealings with cambist.net or B-To-B MarketPlace Inc?
(Ragnar Wrote in response) So, how much are you paying to buy $22.00 worth of e-gold that you want a dedicated team of professionals waiting on you hand and foot? ===== Regards, Ragnar Gold Age - http://www.goldage.net GDCA - http://www.gdcaonline.org Shop anywhere with e-gold - http://www.goldstores.com Liberty Impact - http://www.libertyimpact.com
Also we should mention Global Digital Currency Association (GDCA: http://www.gdcaonline.org). It was a trade association of electronic money operators, digital currency exchangers, merchants and users that became inaccessible a month ago. The site of the company had a list of the businesses and associations which were listed according to the rank assigned by GDCA. Behind this site one could also see the same Budovsky and Kats as the same address was specified:
2106 Bath Avenue, Suite #101 Brooklyn, NY 11214 USA
We should give proper respect to Arthur Budovsky and his team as it was a very wise fraudulent idea to create a site which would rank e-currency exchangers and accredit them. They could simply put the necessary mark and to throw the rivals away. However, it seems that the last publicity policy of LibertyReserve and the crisis on the market of exchange services have made the owners of the system to refuse that site to avoid any suspicions.
So, it appears that LibertyReserve payment system that has finally started thinking of its publicity in order not sink in rumors, talks is just a product of several scammers that had already practiced money laundering and paid for it. Probably today Arthur Budovsky wants to mend his ways however who will trust him? Who will believe the person who had built his business on the dirty money, using some loopholes in bank laws? And finally where is a guaranty that a man who has deceived the government would not deceive the customers? Any event is possible. However the possibility becomes 100 times stronger if the crime has been committed once. Having read this article every reader will make his or her own decision however we think that it is our duty to warn you. It is important as if one day we wake up and see that LibertyReserve is not available not only the clients but hundreds of businesses, exchangers and the greater part of the Internet infrastructure will suffer. And it is impermissible!
This post has been edited by Daniel Joel: Mar 1 2009, 10:37 AM
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Replies(1 - 9)
22millionperyear |
Mar 1 2009, 09:07 PM
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Professional Money-Maker
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QUOTE(Texas Jim @ Mar 1 2009, 11:44 AM) I am still using liberty reserve but i will look into more e-currencies like alertpay and stp etc.
As Bnotz said over in the EBI thread, why would they close down?? They would need an EXCHANGER TO CASH OUT ANY MONEY THAT WAS LEFT IN THE ACCOUNTS!! lol And, Daniel, WTF did you post this for???????? Have a great day! -Edward Brown This post has been edited by 22millionperyear: Mar 2 2009, 09:55 AM
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Bnotz |
Mar 1 2009, 11:53 PM
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First off that article, that very old article is a bunch of BS and is not even closely related to the current LR. Like I said before, what the hell would liberty reserve do with there liberty reserve? Liberty Reserve needs to exchange there funds just as much as we do, and I do not know how the hell they would find an exchanger to exchange money that doesn't exist. Would to you take $1000 Monopoly Money in trade for $1000 real money, yeah I didn't think so. Like I said, Liberty Reserve has nothing to gain from going scam. Besides have any of you even read the Liberty Reserve Blog at blog.libertyreserve.com? For those who are rooting for LR to be a scam you do not belong in the HYIP industry, this might be the death of HYIP, at least for current programs. So stay positive, do not post "Historical Articles" about complete BS. Also why would LR go through the trouble of developing liberty guard less than a week ago? For those who are also wondering why this is taking so long, obviously LR had some major holes in its security, which made it easy for account hacking. Big problems, especially Security Certificate related ones take time. So everyone calm the hell down!
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Miscellaneous |
Mar 2 2009, 03:22 AM
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QUOTE(Bnotz @ Mar 2 2009, 07:53 AM) First off that article, that very old article is a bunch of BS and is not even closely related to the current LR. Like I said before, what the hell would liberty reserve do with there liberty reserve? Liberty Reserve needs to exchange there funds just as much as we do, and I do not know how the hell they would find an exchanger to exchange money that doesn't exist. Would to you take $1000 Monopoly Money in trade for $1000 real money, yeah I didn't think so. Like I said, Liberty Reserve has nothing to gain from going scam. Besides have any of you even read the Liberty Reserve Blog at blog.libertyreserve.com? For those who are rooting for LR to be a scam you do not belong in the HYIP industry, this might be the death of HYIP, at least for current programs. So stay positive, do not post "Historical Articles" about complete BS. Also why would LR go through the trouble of developing liberty guard less than a week ago? For those who are also wondering why this is taking so long, obviously LR had some major holes in its security, which made it easy for account hacking. Big problems, especially Security Certificate related ones take time. So everyone calm the hell down!
I too do not believe that LR would not go scam after going through so much to keep improve its stability and security.
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ozilinx |
Mar 2 2009, 06:16 AM
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QUOTE(Miscellaneous @ Mar 2 2009, 03:22 PM) I too do not believe that LR would not go scam after going through so much to keep improve its stability and security. This is yet another propaganda attempt to discredit Liberty Reserve. This is very old news and LR has changed a lot since then. Here are some photos from their office inauguration party HERE!Find out when they will be back HERE! Liberty Reserve will be back bigger and better very soon!
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