Tag Archives: Drugs & Vice

Holder: Feds to set rules for banks and pot money

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“The Obama administration will soon announce [guidance] to make it easier for banks to do business with legal marijuana sellers, Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday.  ‘You don’t want just huge amounts of cash in these places. They want to be able to use the banking system,’ Holder said during an appearance at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. ‘There’s a public safety component to this. Huge amounts of cash—substantial amounts of cash just kind of lying around with no place for it to be appropriately deposited is something that would worry me, just from a law enforcement perspective.'”

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2014/01/holder-feds-to-let-banks-handle-pot-money-181777.html

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Washington Pot Entrepreneurs Turn To Cash, Bitcoin

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“Although recreational marijuana has been legal in Washington for more than a year, federal law still prohibits banks from dealing with those businesses.  This month the New York Times wrote a front-page feature on marijuana business owners in Seattle paying state taxes with mountains of cash.  Sean Green, himself a marijuana business owner, credits that story with helping push federal officials to act.  In the meantime, Green said his medical marijuana dispensaries are going to accept the digital currency Bitcoin. He concluded that the novel currency would be a good alternative to the options they have now.”

http://kuow.org/post/banks-remain-cautious-washington-pot-entrepreneurs-turn-cash-bitcoin

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HSBC Judge Approves $1.9B Drug-Money Laundering Accord [2013]

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“HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA)’s $1.9 billion agreement with the U.S. to resolve charges it enabled Latin American drug cartels to launder billions of dollars was approved by a federal judge.  HSBC was accused of failing to monitor more than $670 billion in wire transfers and more than $9.4 billion in purchases of U.S. currency from HSBC Mexico, allowing for money laundering, prosecutors said. The bank also violated U.S. economic sanctions against Iran, Libya, Sudan, Burma and Cuba, according to a criminal information filed in the case.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-02/hsbc-judge-approves-1-9b-drug-money-laundering-accord.html

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BitInstant CEO arrested by U.S. for alleged money laundering

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“Bitcoin exchangers Robert Faiella, known as BTCKing in the Bitcoin community, and Charlie Shrem, CEO of Bitcoin exchange company BitInstant, were charged on Monday as part of a multi-agency crackdown led by the US Attorney’s office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service.  According to the agencies, the men engaged in a scheme to sell over $1 million in bitcoins for use on the recently shuttered underground drug e-commerce service Silk Road.  Shrem is also changed with failing to report suspicious activity in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. Shrem was arrested on Sunday at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.”

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57617862-93/bitinstant-ceo-arrested-for-alleged-money-laundering/

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Naughty America Joins Porn.com in Bitcoin Acceptance

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“San Diego-based adult entertainment provider Naughty America, which operates a network of 30+ porn websites, is now accepting bitcoin payments.  CEO and co-founder Andreas Hronopoulos spoke to CoinDesk about the announcement in an exclusive interview.  Hronopoulos indicated that Naughty America first considered accepting bitcoin after discovering the virtual currency through mainstream news coverage of Silk Road. Six months later, Naughty America will follow the Sacramento Kings and The D and Golden Gate hotel-casinos in Las Vegas to leverage the services of Georgia-based payment processor BitPay.”

http://www.coindesk.com/naughty-america-bitcoin-acceptance/

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Man arrested with $153,000 at Nashville airport after dog sniff

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“A man who used $20,000 in cash to charter a private plane from Nashville to California was arrested on money laundering charges after an airport police dog smelled narcotics on $153,000 stuffed into his suitcase, according to a police affidavit released Tuesday. Conor Guckian, 33, was arrested in Nashville on Monday after airport police were alerted to a ‘suspicious individual’ using the large sum of cash to charter the plane to California, according to the affidavit.  Guckian told officers he was transporting the large sum in order to buy gold in California, according to the affidavit.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/14/us-usa-crime-nashville-airport-idUSBREA0D1FT20140114

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The smoking ban killed the British pub: Labour’s defining legacy

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“The British pub is internationally famous. It is entirely bound with the nation’s history. Yet 26 are closing per week – more than 1,000 a year – changing the look of the nation. Town and countryside are littered with pub corpses, boarded up and often awaiting permission for conversion to flats or houses.  And it is not as if something else has come along to bring communities together. Instead, people sit in front of their televisions. This terrible process started with the ban on smoking. Labour was warned that it would result in pub closures, but went ahead regardless. The people it was supposed to protect – the bar staff – have suffered catastrophic job losses as a result.”

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100255698/the-smoking-ban-killed-the-british-pub-this-vandalism-is-labours-defining-legacy/

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Tobacco, booze, now sugar: the control freaks happily ban everything

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“Can you imagine campaigns as ludicrous as this being launched, say, in the 1970s or 1980s? No you can’t because not even the most extreme killjoy zealot would have dared. With bans, as with so many of the fascistic gestures you associate with the authoritarian left, it’s a Pastor Niemoller thing.  Left-liberals often deny that slippery slope exists. ‘Well of course we’re not interested in banning everything. Just the really dangerous stuff. Tobacco.’ Then, of course, when they’ve pretty much regulated tobacco out of existence their locust eyes turn to new territory. Mm: alcohol. Mm: sugar. Mm. salt… etc.”

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100255127/first-tobacco-then-booze-then-sugar-the-control-freaks-who-would-happily-ban-everything/

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You can have my e-cig when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers

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“Apparently, for our current political culture, the need to spread as much misery as possible is a more important goal for government than getting people to quit tobacco.  Attorney generals from 40 states are begging the FDA to intervene and stop the e-cig industry. Some states have already passed legislation to regulate them like regular cigarettes.  There is something about this technology that has the control freaks in a state of frenzy. Health nazis are in a panic, trying to figure out how to shut down the industry, tax it exorbitantly, or otherwise drive it out of public life forever.  No one has demonstrated that e-cigs are harmful in any way. Why is government so down on them?”

http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/20/you-can-have-my-e-cig-when-you-pry-it-from-my-cold-dead-fingers/

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Chicago Bans Vaping In Public—For The Children

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“Today, as anticipated, the Chicago City Council approved an ordinance that adds e-cigarettes to the city’s Clean Indoor Air Act, meaning that vaping will be prohibited everywhere smoking is. The vote was 45 to 4, a resounding endorsement of a scientifically groundless, emotion-driven policy that is likely to accomplish exactly the opposite of what its backers say they are trying to do (i.e., reduce tobacco-related disease). Mayor Rahm Emanuel implausibly portrayed the vaping ban, which will discourage smokers from switching to a far less dangerous method of consuming nicotine, as a victory against Big Tobacco.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2014/01/15/chicago-bans-vaping-in-public-senators-want-it-banned-at-award-ceremonies-for-the-children/

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