Associated Press via Yahoo News
Thursday, October 1, 2009
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091001/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iran_florida_co...
WASHINGTON -- A Florida company has been fined nearly $3 million for activating thousands of electronic currency accounts for customers in Iran, the Treasury Department said Thursday.
The company, Gold & Silver Reserve Inc. of Melbourne, exported financial services without a license, violating federal regulations governing transactions with Iran, the department said.
Between September 2003 and December 2006, more than 56,700 of the company's e-currency accounts were opened by persons located in Iran, according to the announcement, and Gold & Silver Reserve did not voluntarily disclose the violations to the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Carol Van Cleef, an attorney representing the company, said her client has overhauled its internal procedures to be in compliance with Treasury's regulations. "This deals with past issues and the company has put it behind them," she said.
With a Gold & Silver Reserve account, U.S. dollars or other currencies can be converted into digital cash that is backed by gold bullion, according to the company's web site. That allows for international transactions of goods and services at set rates among customers from different countries.
The company has temporarily suspended the creation of new accounts, the Internet site indicates.
In a separate case, the owners of Gold & Silver Reserve, who also own E-Gold Ltd., were indicted by a federal grand jury in April 2007 on charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
The Justice Department said people who wanted to use the company's gold payment system were required to provide only a valid e-mail address to open an account. Customers could access their account through the Internet and conduct anonymous transactions anywhere in the world.
The indictment alleged that E-Gold was a favored method of payment by operators of investment scams, credit card and identity fraud, and sellers of online child pornography.
The owners initially denied the allegations, but eventually pleaded guilty.
The Treasury Department said it could have fined Gold & Silver Reserve $5 million, but reduced the amount because of the forfeitures and penalties the company paid in the criminal case.
Where will "digital cash" be stored? Don't you need a central bank to "house" it and secure it?
ReplyDeleteExcellent comment. Actually with the cryptographic advances of the last 20 years, it is currently possible to create and negotiate 'digital bearer certificates' that represent self-contained value. The analogy would be that all of the privacy features embodied in a $100 bill would exist online (see my prior post http://themonetaryfuture.blogspot.com/2009/07/importance-of-jurisdiction.html).
ReplyDeleteA central monetary authority would not be necessary because they would be nonpolitical currencies without possessing unjust legal tender privileges to enforce. The storage and security would be localized for digital bearer certificates (hard drive, smart card, etc.) and contract law would have to be upheld with the issuer (see www.e-gold.com for a case of electronic transfer system outside of political base money).