E-Gold indicted for money laundering
Doug Jackson, Reid A. Jackson and Barry K. Downey have been indicted by the US government for operating e-gold, http://www.e-gold.com private digital gold currency, illegally. They operated in Melbourne after being indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. They are accused of running an unregulated financial network that catered to criminals laundering illegal money.
Jeffrey Taylor, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and other Justice Departments. Officials said they expected the three to travel to Washington DC at a later date.
A four-count indictment was entered against E-Gold Ltd., Gold & Silver Reserve Inc. and the owners, Dr. Douglas L. Jackson, of Satellite Beach; Reid A. Jackson, of Melbourne; and Barry K. Downey, of Woodbine, Maryland. Each was charged with conspiracy to launder monetary instruments; conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer business; operating an unlicensed money transfer business; and transmit money without a license in Washington, DC
The federal, state and local task force operated for 2½ years under the direction of the US Secret Service in Orlando, as well as the IRS, FBI and other state and local law enforcement agencies. Federal prosecutors obtained a court-ordered search warrant and reportedly seized millions of dollars. At least 58 account holders were exposed and many were deemed to be criminals laundering illegal money through E-Gold deals and transactions.
“Douglas Jackson and his associates operated a sophisticated and widespread international money transfer business, unsupervised and unregulated by any entity in the world, which enabled anonymous transfers of value at the click of a mouse,” Taylor said. “It is no surprise that criminals of all stripes have turned to E-Gold to move their money with impunity. As alleged in the indictment, the defendants in this case knowingly allowed them to do so. and profited from their crimes.”
The indictment accused the digital currency “EGold” of operating as an alternative payment system and was allegedly backed by stored physical gold. He claimed customers only need to provide an email address to open an account and no other customer information is verified. The indictment accused some customers of using fictitious names such as “Mickey Mouse”, “Donald Duck” and “No Name” and being able to transact internationally without any government regulation.
Because of this, it has become a “highly valued means of payment” by investment fraudsters, credit card and identity card thieves and Internet sellers of child pornography, authorities said.
A call to the offices of E-Gold and Gold & Silver Reserve, the founder denies the charges. Dr. Douglas Jackson, Chairman and Founder of E-Gold, speaking on behalf of his fellow directors and the two companies, strenuously denies the charges, particularly opposing allegations that either company would have already turned a blind eye to payments for child pornography or for the sale of stolen identity and credit card information.
Dr Jackson said: “When it comes to child pornography, the government knows full well that their allegations are false, but they are highlighting these irresponsible and deliberately prejudicial statements in order to demonize E-Gold in the public eye. During the “Inquisition, accusations of witchcraft and heresy have been used to sanctify torture and asset seizures. In post-9/11 America, child pornography and terrorism are the denunciations of choice. E-Gold, however, as an indisputable fact, is the most effective of all online payment systems in detecting and interdicting abuse of its system for payments related to child pornography.E-Gold Ltd. is a founding member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) Financial Coalition to Eliminate Child Pornography.
E-Gold is the only member institution to demonstrate with solid, verifiable data a dramatic reduction in these payments to virtually zero, while billions of dollars in child pornography continue to flow through other (heavily regulated) payment systems. [Most members, that is, all the banks and credit card associations are utterly unable to even provide an estimate of the volume of such payments processed by their systems. eBay’s PayPal subsidiary, who may have the ability to make such a determination, has refused to do so and has indicated they destroy payment records after two years.] Worse still, until August 2005, when NCMEC bravely broke ranks with US law enforcement and began notifying E-Gold directly of crime sites via the CyberTipline, US Department of Justice agencies deliberately concealed their knowledge of child pornography abuse from E-Gold’s investigators, subordinating the fight against real crime to a political agenda designed to smear E-Gold.”
Click HERE to read Dr. Jackson’s full denial statement.
