A just unsealed grand jury indictment places YouTuber Bill Omar Carrasquillo (Omi in a Hellcat) and two other men at the heart of a massive conspiracy to illegally obtain Comcast, Verizon, Charter and other TV services' content and distribute it to the public via several Gears-branded pirate IPTV services. According to the US government, the defendants made at least $34m.

A little under two years ago, the federal government shut down Gears-branded IPTV services operated by Bill Omar Carrasquillo (aka Omi in a Hellcat).

IRS and FBI agents seized “at least” $5.2m from his bank accounts along with a laundry list of supercars and other vehicles, alleged to have been purchased with revenues from Carrasquillo’s TV services.

As the government works to take possession of those assets in a civil process, the long-awaited criminal indictment has now landed. Unsealed last evening, it attempts to drive a coach and horses through Carrasquillo’s claim that his services operated in a legal gray area.

Grand Jury Indictment – Copyright Infringement

The indictment begins by naming Carrasquillo (‘Omar,’ ‘Omi,’ ‘Target,’ and ‘Target1080p’) of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Jesse Gonzales (aka ‘Wulfy’) of California, and Michael Barone of New York as defendants. It also references a currently anonymous ‘Person 1’ as a co-conspirator.

It’s alleged that for more than three years, the named defendants and others ran a ‘video content delivery service’ variously branded as Reboot, Gears TV, Reloaded and Gears Reloaded. They also operated a content library called Streams R Us (SRU) containing movies and other content.

“The Infringing Service delivered Video Content, including television shows and movies, to subscribers to the Infringing Service, in exchange for payment,” it reads.

It’s claimed that the defendants conspired to fraudulently obtain content from major video content providers including Comcast’s Xfinity, Verizon, Charter’s Spectrum, DirecTV and Frontier Communications. This was achieved by subscribing to their residential cable television services in a variety of locations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, California and New York.

Criminal Violations of the DMCA

In order to capture the providers’ content, the defendants allegedly imported devices from China designed to strip High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) including at least seven 16-port encoders. The content was then transmitted over the Internet and copied to computer servers controlled by the defendants, some of it for subscribers’ time-shifted consumption.

“[The defendants and Person 1] did willfully, and for the purpose of commercial advantage and private financial gain, circumvent and attempt to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to one or more works protected under Title 17 of the United States Code, namely, audiovisual television and movie programming offered by the Video Content Providers, and others,” the indictment states, citing criminal violations of the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions.

“[The defendants] and other conspirators did not at any point seek or obtain authorization from the copyright holders or licensees to transmit, copy, or stream the Video Content [and at no point did they] disclose to the Video Content Providers that, in signing up for residential services at multiple locations’ they intended to copy, transmit, and stream the Video Content to thousands of their own subscribers.”

A sample of the works allegedly copied include Steve Jobs, Man of Steel, Game of Thrones, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Shameless and The Walking Dead. The copying of these works and more constitute criminal violations of copyright law under 17 U.S. Code § 506 and 18 U.S. Code § 2319, which can carry a sentence of up to 10 years imprisonment.

Pirate Services Generated $30 Million in Subscriber Fees

In order to market the pirate services to the masses, it’s alleged that the defendants utilized a YouTube channel called ‘TARGETIN1080p’ while administrative interactions between the defendants and their subscribers took place on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Discord and Google Hangouts.

The indictment claims that in total, the defendants received more than $30m in subscriber fees through merchant processing accounts at Stripe, BOAMS, EMS, Nuvei and Worldpay, among others. These accounts were allegedly obtained by making false declarations to the processors and in some cases their banking partners in respect of the nature of the IPTV services and the identities of their owners.

Fraudulent Documents, Fraudulent Tax Returns

It has been known for some time that tax issues form a major part of the case against Carrasquillo and the indictment makes that clear with its claims against the YouTuber. It states that Carrasquillo, Gonzales and others submitted fraudulent documents, including false tax returns.

Gonzales also filed a fraudulent ‘Business Portfolio Purchase Agreement’ that claimed to show that he provided Carrasquillo with an “online customer base with web hosting capabilities” in exchange for $3 million and 24 monthly payments of $50,000.

According to the US government, the defendants “misrepresented, concealed, and hid, caused to be misrepresented’ concealed and hidden’ and attempted to misrepresent, conceal and hide the actions done in furtherance of the conspiracy.”

Indictment Demands Asset Forfeiture

The charges against the defendants reads as follows:

Conspiracy to defraud the United States (18 U.S. Code § 371), circumvention of copyright protection systems (17 U.S. Code § 1201), reproduction of a protected work (17 U.S. Code § 106 and 18 U.S. Code § 2319), public performance of a protected work (17 U.S. Code § 106 and 18 U.S. Code § 2319), access device fraud (18 U.S. Code § 1029), wire fraud, false statements to a bank, engaging in monetary transactions from unlawful activity, false statements, removal of property to prevent seizure and tax evasion.

The indictment asks the court to order forfeiture of any and all property resulting from the offenses listed above including (but not limited to) the sum of $34,826,402.00.

The amount includes items seized by the government thus far, including a fleet of luxury cars and various sums seized from banking and similar accounts. The indictment also demands forfeiture of 52 items of real estate in the Philadelphia area.

The grand jury indictment can be found here, Carrasquillo’s conditions of release order here (pdf)

Update: A video of Carrasquillo being arrested by FBI agents a few hours ago has now appeared on YouTube.

Update2: The Department of Justice has just announced that if convicted, Carrasquillo faces a maximum possible sentence of 514 years in prison, Gonzales 244 years in prison, and Barone 130 years in prison.

“You can’t just go and monetize someone else’s copyrighted content with impunity,” says Bradley S. Benavides, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division. “That’s the whole point of securing a copyright. Theft is theft, and if you’re going to willfully steal another party’s intellectual property, the FBI stands ready to step in and shut you down.”

After being founded in 2006, RLSLOG grew to become the largest and most recognized pirate 'release blog' on the Internet. In the years that followed RLSLOG weathered many legal storms and even referrals to the USTR, but today the founder of RLSLOG confirms that after 15 years, the site has thrown in the towel.

Founded in 2006, RLSLOG.net was one of the pioneers of the ‘release blog’ format. When it first launched, visitors were able to read about the latest pirate releases, who had placed them online and, importantly, what the files were called.

Unlike so-called ‘pre databases’ that displayed only raw information, new releases on RLSLOG were presented in an article format with comments on the quality, source (such as DVDSCR or the now largely defunct Telecine), runtime, IMDB rating and format (Xvid, for example). Music was also broadly covered along with apps, games and other pirated content.

These articles also linked to Scene ‘NFO’ files but where the site broke relatively new ground was the addition of links where the files could be found on torrent sites including the long-dead Mininova. This information was welcomed by millions of pirates and in one stand-out moment, was even appreciated by a prominent filmmaker.

In November 2007, Eric Wilkinson, the producer of the independent film ‘The Man from Earth’, wrote an email to RLSlog in which he thanked them for the free promotion the site gave him. “In the future, I will not complain about file sharing,” he wrote, “When I make my next picture, I just may upload the movie on the net myself!”

More than 10 years later, however, The Man From Earth director Richard Schenkman was describing pirates as an “existential threat” to all creators. That position was also held by the broader entertainment industries a decade earlier so, with growing numbers of visitors to RLSLOG, the site received plenty of attention from copyright holders.

(Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed the “existential threat” quote to Wilkinson)

RLSLOG Reported to the USTR

While a particularly unwelcome status, any site reported to the United States Trade Representative by copyright holders can consider itself well and truly on the map. In 2010, RLSLOG was reported to the USTR by the RIAA, labeled a ‘notorious market’ worthy of enforcement action. At the time, RLSLOG had grown into the world’s most popular release news site, a position not lost on the music industry.

“www.rlslog.net has thousands of pre-release or recently released music titles available on the site. For each title there are multiple one-click download links known as ‘mirrors’,” the RIAA told the USTR.

“Due to the speed of which content and mirror links are added, this site enables users to download pre-release titles quickly but also request new links if older links have been removed.”

Copyright Pressures Mount

During the same year as the RIAA filed its complaint with the USTR, RLSLOG was pulled offline by its German hosting company following a takedown request from Universal Music. A couple of months later it was down again, this time kicked out by its new Netherlands-based host. Even greater pressure lay ahead.

Late 2012, RLSLOG received threats from the prominent law firm Wiggin LLC acting on behalf of the Hollywood studios. They claimed that around 94% of all content listed by RLSLOG was material to which they owned the copyrights. RLSLOG’s owner contested that but nevertheless considered action in response, including the removal of third-party download links.

In the following February, RLSLOG confirmed that all direct links to movies and TV shows would be removed. However, these were replaced with pre-filled Google searches, enabling the search engine to direct people to content instead.

The Beginning of the End

For many of the years that followed, RLSLOG continued to serve its userbase while mostly staying out of the headlines but with millions of users turning to legal services such as Netflix, the site’s position in the overall market changed.

The site still enjoys considerable traffic even today but this morning RLSLOG founder Martin revealed that the site had shut down for good.

Martin informs TorrentFreak that the time was right to step away.

“There is no big reason behind the announcement, we simply decided to focus on other projects and move on, to close this amazing chapter,” he explains.

“We have been and we will always remain the very first and also the most visited filesharing blog in the world with hundreds of thousands of loyal readers. For 15 years in a row we provided the fastest and most comprehensive information about the scene and non-scene releases.”

Martin also cites the changes in the supply of content as a factor, noting that today’s emphasis on streaming played a part in his decision to shut RLSLOG down.

“The filesharing environment has changed a lot in recent years with more and more users paying for content through Netflix, Amazon Prime and other services, or switching to online streaming, which also played a role in our decision. Anyway, beautiful memories and strong friendships will prevail after this amazing chapter and RLSLOG will always be a part of the filesharing history.”

According to a post on RLSLOG, the site is currently for sale. Whether any prospective buyer will attempt to pick up where RLSLOG left off is unknown but they will have big boots to fill and a long history that in today’s environment will be all but impossible to replicate.

According to the findings of one study, nearly 91% of deaths from natural disasters recorded between 1970 and 2019 occurred in developing countries. This study adds that such a high number of deaths is largely due to a lack of early warning systems and disaster management protocols.

Using Blockchain to Store Climate Data

It has been shown that improvements in technology can help to lower the number of lives lost as a result of flooding or cyclones. Unfortunately for third world countries, their poor access to centralized data which is used to predict weather patterns means the number of lives lost due to natural disasters remains unacceptably high.

It is this sad state of affairs that prompted individuals behind the Kanda Weather Ballon project and creators of the Telos protocol to seek an unusual solution to the problem — the use of the blockchain. Already, this project is reportedly empowering African university students to utilize the Telos blockchain to offer a viable solution for the lack of real-time and historical climate data in West Africa by building an entirely community-owned balloon network.

Telos Uptime and Minimal Storage Costs

Supporters of the Kanda Weather Balloon project believe that collecting data this way will enable communities to prepare for and recover from severe weather. Therefore, to learn more about this balloon project and how the blockchain makes this type of data collection cost-effective, Bitcoin.com News reached out to Nicolas Lopez. Lopez is a former software engineer with Boeing and the current chief engineer of Kanda.

Below are Lopez’s responses to questions sent to him via email.

Bitcoin.com News (BCN): Can you briefly tell us why weather tracking is important?

Nicolas Lopez (NL): The upper air observations with in-situ sensors are important because there’s currently very little data in this regard. Weather satellites are very good at measuring values near the ground but perform poorly in the middle of the atmosphere. Most weather models need data up to 35,000 feet or so to make good predictions about rainfall and even climate.

For example, we’ve seen instances where a single weather balloon launched out of Douala, Cameroon changes the initial model state by 5+ degrees Celsius 100 miles away over southeast Nigeria. Without this data, models rely on false data assumptions and perform very poorly over West Africa in particular. We are talking with weather company Climacell.org to demonstrate how only a few launch stations can greatly impact the accuracy of rainfall forecasts.

BCN: How does this work and why Telos?

NL: We use the Telos blockchain to store the data we collect from our launches. Most weather data is already difficult to obtain due to funding constraints by NOAA and the use of outdated data repositories. We use the blockchain because it has 100% uptime and low storage costs for small amounts of data. Also, the Telos smart contract allows us to send digital currency “mining” rewards to the launcher of the balloon in real-time.

We call it “mining” because atmospheric pressure always decreases with elevation and is difficult to fake by someone on the ground… much like how bitcoin hashes cannot be faked. When the sensor measures lower pressure values, it knows the balloon has been launched and sends Telos currency accordingly.

BCN: Do you have any plans of expanding this to other parts of the continent?

NL: Telos has active communities in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria and they are growing. Telos was recently listed on Kucoin, which is widely used in Nigeria as an off-ramp for Telos to local currencies. Right now Kanda is working with university students in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon, but we want to expand to other parts of Africa like Kenya, because of the large amounts of rainfall near Lake Victoria. We think we could add a lot of value there as well.

Nexi, a leading European payments company, is reportedly giving advice to the European Central Bank (ECB) related to the digital euro project. The announcement was made by Nexi’s CEO Paolo Bertoluzzo, who also gave his opinion about the future of central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and cryptocurrencies during the Money 20/20 fintech conference in Amsterdam.

Nexi Advising ECB on Digital Euro Issues

Nexi, one of the biggest payments companies in Europe, is working in tandem with the European Central Bank toward the creation of a digital euro, according to statements made by Paolo Bertoluzzo, Nexi’s CEO. During an interview at the Money 20/20 conference, Bertoluzzo declared:

We are engaging with the European Central Bank and contributing to the design of the future digital euro because we believe that can be a positive force in the evolution of digital payments.

Nexi offers payments services for other banks, managing 41.3 million payment cards and 2.7 billion transactions each year, according to reports. Nexi also offers services for merchants and digital banking groups. As to the nature of the collaboration, Bertoluzzo stated:

We’re starting to talk about a new version of cash. That’s the way they think about it.

CBDCs Could Be the Future of Payments

Nexi’s position is that central bank digital currencies may be very important for the future of payments, at the same level as stablecoins. What’s important about these instruments is that they offer stability merchants and users need while making any type of payment. Bertoluzzo does not see cryptocurrencies in the same light. Nexi’s CEO believes that the volatility that makes cryptocurrencies useful as trading tools is the same element that negatively affects their usability in payments. He stressed:

They are clearly an asset class. But they fluctuate up and down on a daily basis based on the latest statement from someone in Silicon Valley.

The EU is playing catch up with countries like China, which is already well advanced in its CBDC project, a digital representation of the renminbi. The digital euro is just starting to be investigated by the ECB, according to ECB president Christine Lagarde. This investigation phase could last two years, and the development of the CBDC would start immediately after

The Central Bank of Russia has recently expanded its database of financial market players suspected of illicit activities. Several crypto companies have been added to the list along with entities bearing signs of Ponzi schemes, as well as illegal credit organizations and forex dealers.

Central Bank of Russia Blacklists Crypto Platforms

As part of its monitoring of the financial sector, the Central of Russia (CBR) regularly identifies illegal financial services providers and warns Russian investors about fraudulent platforms. This week, the regulator added another 105 companies to its growing list of businesses showing “signs of illegal activities in the financial market.”

Among the new entries, the monetary authority has blacklisted a number of crypto companies. Most of them have been classified as resembling financial pyramid schemes. Bitflows, Bitkoresh, Bittrex-global, Crypto Invest Club, Idleminer, Miners Capital, and Money Miner fall under this category. Another entity, Bitford, has been designated as an “illegal professional participant in the securities market.”

The bank reminded the public that in order to offer most financial services in the Russian Federation, providers are required to obtain a license from the central bank or register with the regulator. “If this condition is not met, then, most likely, the organization operates illegally, and consumers can be deceived,” the authority says while also warning it’s not obliged by current law to compensate victims of illegal platforms.

Last month, Bank of Russia blacklisted three entities — To The Mars, To The Moon, and TTM Group — linked to the promotion of the Finiko crypto pyramid. Financial damages attributed to the Ponzi scheme, one of the largest in modern Russian history, amount to $4 billion, according to independent estimates quoted by Forklog. A report by Chainalysis revealed the pyramid received over $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in less than two years before it collapsed this summer.

CBR blacklisted Finiko in February and a batch of 15 cryptocurrency projects was added in June, the crypto news outlet noted. “To suppress illegal financial activities, the Bank of Russia takes measures to block the websites of such companies, and also interacts with law enforcement and other authorized bodies, foreign regulators to apply other measures,” the authority explained.

The Central Bank of Russia has continuously opposed the adoption of cryptocurrencies, issuing multiple warnings for investors. Last week, its Deputy Chairman Sergei Shvetsov stated the bank would not support increasing access to crypto markets, insisting cryptocurrency is “highly risky and has signs of a pyramid scheme.” Earlier in September, the regulator recommended banks block cards and wallets used to transact with crypto exchangers, and in July, CBR advised Russian stock exchanges to avoid trading crypto instruments.

Canada's Federal Court of Appeals has revived a reverse class-action lawsuit from Voltage Pictures, which plans to go after alleged BitTorrent pirates. The lower court rejected this approach, as it would not suitable for file-sharing cases, but in a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeals sees things differently.

Movie studio Voltage Pictures has gone after alleged movie pirates for many years now.

The company and its subsidiaries have filed numerous lawsuits against alleged pirates in the United States, Australia, and Europe, which likely brought in substantial revenues.

Last week, we reported that Voltage just launched a new legal campaign in the UK. At the same time, there is news coming from Canada as well, where Voltage hopes to hold alleged pirates responsible through a novel strategy.

Reverse Class-action Against BitTorrent Pirates

In Canada, Voltage is attempting to obtain the personal details of a large group of copyright infringers through a reverse class-action lawsuit, which is relatively rare. The movie company argued that this is a cheaper way to target large numbers of infringers at once.

The lawsuit in question was initially filed in 2016 and has dragged on for years. The case revolves around a representative defendant, Robert Salna, who provides WiFi services to tenants. Through Salna, Voltage hoped to catch a larger group of infringers.

As the case progressed it garnered the interest of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC). The group, which is connected to the University of Ottawa, eventually intervened in the Federal Court proceeding to represent anonymous defendants.

Case Dismissed

This intervention helped to get the case dismissed in 2019. At the time, the Federal Court concluded that the case deals with multiple infringers which will all have different circumstances. Reverse class-action lawsuits are less suited to this scenario.

“A class proceeding is not a preferable procedure for the just and efficient resolution of any common issues which may exist. The proposed proceeding would require multiple individual fact-findings for each class member on almost every issue,” Judge Boswell wrote at the time.

This was good news for the large group of anonymous defendants, who had yet to be named. However, Voltage was not planning to let the matter go. The movie company appealed, and not without success, as the Federal Court of Appeals has just reversed the lower court’s judgment.

Court of Appeals Revives Class-Action

Justice Rennie set aside the 2019 Federal Court ruling and pointed out several reversible errors. For example, the argument that the reverse class-action is a novel approach should not be a reason to dismiss the matter. Voltage should get the chance to test its arguments in court.

The Court further notes that the criteria to join two or more defendants in a class action has a low standard, and it sees no reason to prevent the case from moving forward on that ground.

In the order, Justice Rennie writes that there is not enough evidence to determine whether a class action is the preferable procedure and whether Mr. Salna is a representative defendant, so this question was sent back to the lower court.

The ruling further clarified that copyright holders can use the “notice-and-notice” regime to send litigation updates to accused subscribers. These notices will be forwarded by ISPs, a practice that was barred by the lower court.

Minimizing Costs

The ruling once again puts thousands of alleged movie pirates at risk. If Voltage wins the lawsuit it can go after a large group of defendants while minimizing its legal costs.

Interestingly, Justice Rennie notes that the reverse class-action approach can be beneficial for accused pirates as well. They will be able to pool their resources to fight the matter.

While the ruling is a clear victory for Voltage, the Federal Court has to review the matter once again, so it’s far from clear that the movie company will eventually get the green light to go after thousands of alleged pirates.

If Voltage fails, the company still has other options. As we have previously reported, more traditional copyright lawsuits have also been effective against hundreds of alleged pirates. They may be a bit more expensive but, as long as they’re profitable, they will probably not go away.

Virgin Media subscribers receiving letters accusing them of movie piracy may find that settling their cases will be a costly affair. TorrentFreak understands that settlement demands run to several thousand pounds, a massive uplift on the several hundred usually requested in similar cases. Interestingly, however, some subscribers could be immune from being sued.

Last week TorrentFreak broke the news that Voltage Holdings LLC, a company well known for tracking down pirates worldwide, has obtained a High Court order compelling Virgin Media to hand over subscriber data.

As a result, some of the ISP’s subscribers have begun receiving letters accusing them of pirating the movie ‘Ava’ with the advice that if the matter goes to court, they could be found liable for copyright infringement. Of course, this is something Voltage and its partners would prefer to avoid and to that end, are offering recipients the option to admit liability and pay a settlement fee.

In line with earlier High Court guidance, initial letters to subscribers don’t provide any idea of what that settlement amount might be. In the past the sums requested have tended to drift around the several hundred pounds mark but early indications suggest that Voltage and its partners are now aiming much, much higher.

Multiple Thousands of Pounds Requested

According to sources familiar with the matter who spoke with TorrentFreak on condition of anonymity, attempting to settle a case with Voltage’s law firm Lewis Silkin LLP will not be cheap. Early indications suggest that the amounts requested run to several thousand pounds and are likely to vary in scale depending on the specific defendant.

At this stage it’s too early to definitively say what factors are being considered when assessing the settlement amount. However, if earlier methodology is deployed it’s possible that Voltage’s anti-piracy monitoring company (believed to be MaverickEye) will take the BitTorrent swarm size (the number of people sharing the movie at the same time) and multiply that by the price of the Ava movie.

As previously reported, this system has serious flaws. However, for people who simply want to settle and move on, paying Voltage a few thousand pounds should make the whole thing go away – at least in respect of this particular accusation. But what about those who wish to contest the claims being made?

Options For Accused Subscribers

At the core of the letters is the assumption that the person who pays the Virgin Media bill is the person who downloaded and shared the movie ‘Ava’ without permission. ‘Assumption’ is key here since Voltage acknowledges that may not be the case and someone else in a household could be liable.

If the bill payer did not carry out the infringement and did not authorize/allow someone else to do so, under the Copyright Designs and Patent Act they are not liable. This means that they can issue a direct denial to Voltage but that would not prevent the company from filing a claim if it believes it has a case.

At this point it’s important to note that any claim by Voltage would be actioned in a civil court where cases are decided on the balance of probabilities – 51% confidence of infringement could tip a case in the company’s favor, resulting in a damages award. That’s in addition to the associated legal costs of a failed defense.

Given that Voltage is setting the bar so high with demands for multi-thousand-pound settlements, it seems likely that defendants who can afford to mount a defense will do so. Michael Coyle of Lawdit Solicitors is currently taking on defendants’ cases for £300 (plus VAT) but for those with fewer resources, it’s difficult to know where they can turn other than Citizens Advice.

However, there are some other interesting facts buried in the High Court order that could render some cases dead in the water before they begin.

Safeguarding Measures Are Built Into the High Court Order

While the letter from Lewis Silkin LLP ticks all the boxes and conforms to the standards laid down by the High Court, there are some interesting details in the actual order that the law firm’s letter does not directly address.

For example, the High Court states that Voltage may not initiate legal proceedings against a minor, which means anyone under the age of 18 in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. This means that if a parent pays the bill and a 17-year-old illegally downloaded and shared the movie, Voltage cannot bring a case against them.

Furthermore, the High Court says that Voltage cannot pursue cases against an infringer who is a pensioner. The retirement age in the UK is currently 66 and according to the High Court’s instructions, “anyone over the age of 65” can not have proceedings brought against them. In addition, anyone who is considered ‘vulnerable‘ will not have to face proceedings either.

General Observations and Opinion

In many respects, this new anti-piracy program is the same as those that have come and gone in the past. The allegations are the same and the aims are the same – to have people pay large sums of money to avoid having to fight a copyright infringement lawsuit in court. That being said, this campaign has clearly learned many of the lessons that have dogged similar efforts in the past and is therefore much less likely to run off the rails due to incompetence and inexperience.

While arguably still objectionable given the ratio between the cost of the movie and what appear to be extortionate settlement demands, the project appears to have been planned in fine detail and has some major players on board. Also, given the history of Voltage and its partners, the claimants may yet have some surprise sources of additional evidence up their collective sleeves, rather than just IP addresses alone.

Where possible, all letter recipients should proceed with caution, preferably backed up by a legal professional. Voltage can’t sue everyone but it should be assumed that hand-picking one or two defendants to be made an example of is probably part of the plan.

AMC Theatres chain is exploring how to accept dogecoin alongside four other cryptocurrencies. AMC’s CEO conducted a poll on Twitter and was overwhelmed by the results and enthusiasm of the dogecoin community. “It’s clear that you think AMC should accept dogecoin. Now we need to figure out how to do that,” he said.

AMC Considers Adding Dogecoin to List of Accepted Cryptocurrencies

Following the announcement that AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. will accept bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, and ether for payments, CEO Adam Aron set up a poll on Twitter to ask the crypto community if his company should also accept the popular meme cryptocurrency dogecoin (DOGE).

AMC Entertainment Holdings is the largest movie exhibition company in the U.S., Europe, and the world. As of March 31, AMC owned or operated approximately 950 theaters and 10,500 screens globally.

Aron tweeted Tuesday:

I sincerely want to hear your opinion, via this Twitter Poll. By year-end 2021, AMC will take bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin and bitcoin cash for online payments. I hear from many on my Twitter feed we should accept dogecoin too. Do you think AMC should explore accepting dogecoin?

According to the poll results, 68.1% of the 140,388 voters said, “Yes, for sure do it.” A further 8.6% supported the addition of dogecoin as a payment method but said they “won’t use it.” Only 23.3% said “no” to the company accepting DOGE.

AMC CEO Adam Aron’s Twitter poll about whether AMC should accept dogecoin (DOGE). Source: Aron’s Twitter account.

The CEO’s tweet was liked 14.9K times and retweeted 7.1K times at the time of writing. Among those who liked his tweet was Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a dogecoin supporter who has been called the Dogefather. Musk recently revealed that he owned some DOGE. He and the NBA team Dallas Mavericks’ owner, Mark Cuban, said that dogecoin was the “strongest cryptocurrency for payments.”

Commenting on Musk liking his tweet, the AMC CEO wrote: “I never thought I would see this day. Elon Musk liked my Dogecoin Twitter Poll tweet. If you happen to see this tweet too Mr. Musk, congratulations on Tesla and Spacex. I have strived to be an innovator my entire career, but you sir are the epitome of innovation above all others.”

On Wednesday, Aron announced on Twitter that AMC is now exploring how to accept dogecoin. The CEO tweeted: “So Fascinating! Dogecoin Poll was by far my highest ever read tweet. In 24 hours, 4.2 million views, my most ever retweets, most ever replies. 140,000 votes 77% yes 23% no.” He added:

The National Bank of Ukraine recognizes the benefits of endorsing crypto innovations but also fears cryptocurrencies could gain ground on the national fiat. Announcing its monetary policy guidelines for the near future, the regulator noted it’s going to defend the status of the hryvnia as the only legal tender in the country.

Bank of Ukraine Won’t Let Crypto Replace Fiat Money

Under the current administration in Kyiv, Ukraine has taken steps to regulate its expanding crypto space. Earlier this month, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a law “On Virtual Assets” legalizing crypto-related activities and is now working on tax amendments pertaining to cryptocurrency transactions. President Volodymyr Zelensky designated the crypto market as a “development vector” of the nation’s digital economy.

Against this backdrop, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has acknowledged that innovations associated with virtual assets, or cryptocurrencies, can improve access to financial services for Ukrainians while increasing competition among market participants, and also bring investments to the East European country. The regulator supports facilitating the growth of the nascent digital currency industry.

At the same time, the central bank sees certain risks in cryptocurrencies, its recently adopted “Basic Principles of Monetary Policies for 2022 and Medium-Term Perspective” revealed. According to the document quoted by Forklog, the spread of decentralized money may stimulate the outflow of funds from bank deposits into digital assets, endangering financial stability, and could increase evasion of financial monitoring.

Most of all, the NBU fears that cryptocurrency can potentially substitute the national fiat money, the Ukrainian hryvnia, leading to the “emergence of a parallel monetary circulation.” To limit these risks, the authority intends to prevent any restrictions on the use of the hryvnia as the exclusive legal tender in Ukraine as it’s also preparing to issue a digital version of the sovereign currency.

While noting that cryptocurrencies don’t have a significant impact on the government’s monetary policy and financial stability at present, the National Bank of Ukraine admits this is likely to change in the future. With technological progress and market expansion, growing awareness and investor interest, “the prevalence of virtual assets may increase significantly, and their price volatility may decrease,” the central bank concludes.

In an interview in August, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Oleksandr Bornyakov promised Ukrainians will be able to keep, trade, and spend cryptocurrencies. The government official pointed out that although the new legislation does not permit their use as a means of payment, it will be legal to pay with crypto through instant conversion to the hryvnia. Bornyakov added he expects to see a whole new market for intermediary services allowing digital coins to be stored, exchanged, and used in payments

The deadline for cryptocurrency exchanges and wallet operators to comply with the new regulatory requirements to stay open in South Korea is this week. So far, only one crypto exchange has been licensed to continue operations. About 60 crypto exchanges are expected to either shut down or reduce services.

60 Crypto Exchanges Expected to Shut Down or Reduce Services

Under the “Act on the Reporting and Use of Specific Financial Transaction Information (Special Act),” crypto exchanges must be Information Security Management System (ISMS)-certified and register with the South Korean Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) by Sept. 24. Crypto exchanges that fail to do either must cease operations on that date.

According to local media, 34 exchanges have not received ISMS certification, so they are expected to shut down entirely on Sept. 24.

A total of 29 crypto exchanges have been ISMS-certified but only one has successfully registered with the FIU, a unit of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), the country’s top financial regulator.

The Financial Intelligence Unit held its first crypto business review meeting Friday to review the report submitted by Dunamu Inc., the operator of Upbit, the largest crypto exchange in the country. The review committee accepted the report, making Upbit the first licensed crypto exchange operator in the country.

The FIU further revealed Friday that besides Upbit, four other crypto exchange operators have submitted a report: Bithumb, Korbit, Coinone, and Korea Digital Exchange (Flybit). In addition, a wallet operator, Korea Digital Asset (KODA), has also submitted a report.

The FSC said:

Considering that there is one week left until the 24th, virtual asset providers who have not yet filed a report should file a report promptly.

In addition, registered crypto exchanges that want to offer trading in Korean won must also partner with banks to provide users with real-name verified accounts. So far, only the country’s largest exchanges — Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit — have secured banking partnerships. Banks are reluctant to partner with smaller exchanges due to risks such as money laundering.

That means, 25 crypto exchanges out of the 29 that have been ISMS-certified will be crypto-only exchanges if they successfully register with the FIU. They must cease offering trading in Korean won by Sept. 24 and should have already notified their customers as required by the financial regulators. Four companies — Gopax, Gdac, Hanbitco, and Huobi Korea — said they are still working to secure banking partnerships by the deadline.

Currently, out of 63 crypto exchanges, only the top four exchanges will continue to operate as normal. The rest will either shut down or reduce services