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US DOJ Accuses Listings Site Backpage Of Laundering Millions In Crypto

Us doj accuses listings site backpage of laundering millions in crypto

US DOJ Accuses Listings Site Backpage Of Laundering Millions In Crypto

Us doj accuses listings site backpage of laundering millions in crypto

Listings website Backpage.com was seized on Friday by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in part on charges that it laundered half a billion dollars in illegal revenue, some via cryptocurrencies, a DOJ press release announced Monday, April 9.

The 93-count federal indictment, obtained through joint action by the FBI, IRS and others, alleges that Backpage earned “over $500 mln in prostitution-related revenue since its inception.” IRS Criminal Investigation Chief John D. Fort dubbed the defendants “masterminds,” who committed “egregious financial crimes such as money laundering […] at the expense of women and children,” using “virtual currencies… and the anonymity of the Internet” to cover their tracks.

“By laundering the illegal gains of an enterprise, Backpage perpetuated the exploitation of victims and continued to finance their business,” Chief Postal Inspector Guy Cottrell said.

The indictment explicitly states that the defendants “converted customer payments into and out of cryptocurrency” in order to conceal their misconduct and evade law enforcement. But beyond the indictment, the crypto trail goes further, involving not only the defendants, but the sex workers who used the online hub as well.

In 2015, Visa and Mastercard stopped processing transactions from Backpage, citing “moral, social and legal” reasons. bitcoin became one of the few available payment methods, with one Backpage escort bitterly riposting that although altcoins “may seem scary,” they were becoming the only way to “stay safe and successful” in the online industry. A reddit thread that same year proposed a Sex Industry bitcoin Training Manual in the wake of Backpage’s Visa shutdown. This “wave” of new crypto users was dubbed by bitcoin advocacy reddit groups as “The Backpage Effect.”

Law authorities globally are working to set a precedent for cases in which cryptocurrencies are exploited to conceal layers of misconduct and corruption. According to the head of Europol, as much as $5.5 billion is being laundered through cryptocurrencies annually.

Published at Tue, 10 Apr 2018 20:38:14 +0000

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Nitrogen Sports Adds New Baccarat Game to its Bitcoin Casino Platform

One of the popular bitcoin casino platforms, Nitrogen Sports has recently announced the addition of a new game – Baccarat. The popular game is now available alongside some of the most-played games on the platform like Dice, 1-deck Blackjack, 2-deck Blackjack and 8-deck Blackjack.

The Baccarat game offered on Nitrogen Sports is definitely different from other versions available online. It provides unprecedented flexibility to the players where they can choose between single and multiplayer game versions. The game comes with a fully integrated chat feature and offers a range of avatars for players to pick from along with a history of played hands.

Like any other game on Nitrogen Sports, Baccarat is provably fair.  The platform uses Mersenne Twister random number generator (RNG) algorithm to ensure that the odds are totally even in all their games. Players on the platform can readily verify the validity of a hand by using randomly generated hashes that are controlled only by them. The generated client seed hash can be checked on any third-party verifier site for any of the Nitrogen’s Baccarat hands.

nitrogen-sports-logo

In its press release announcing the launch of Baccarat, the platform also provides the game rules and instructions. According to the release, Nitrogen’s Baccarat is a card comparing game to be played between two hands – one, the “player” and the other, “banker”. Each Baccarat round has three possible outcomes:

  1. Player hand
  2. Banker hand
  3. Tie between hands

Baccarat cards have different point values, the cards numbered 2 to 9 are worth their face value (in points), 10s, Ks, Qs, and Js carry no points. Aces (A) carries one point and Jokers are not used. The pointing system for hands in Baccarat game considers only the rightmost digit of the sum of constituent cards.

For example: If a hand consists of cards 2 and 3, the total points for that hand is 5 (2+3). But in a scenario where the hand consists of cards 6 and 7, then its only worth 3 (as 3 is the rightmost digit in the combined points total; 13).

As per the rules of the game, the highest possible hand value in Baccarat is 9.

There are numerous versions of Baccarat played in almost every real-life casino around the world but unlike them, playing Baccarat on Nitrogen Sports is much easier and faster. The use of bitcoin offers players more flexibility in the game due to the ease at which players can buy and transfer the cryptocurrency. Users can simply create a wallet address through numerous methods and start playing.

Players on Nitrogen casino platform are free to deposit and withdraw the cryptocurrency balance as fast as the bitcoin network would allow them to do. But in the case of conventional fiat based online casinos, the same might take days at times.

All these factors make playing Baccarat on Nitrogen Sports a much better experience than any other alternative. Those interested in playing the game can do so here.

Images courtesy of Nitrogen Sports, AdobeStock

The post Nitrogen Sports Adds New Baccarat Game to its Bitcoin Casino Platform appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

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