301 pointsby pavel_lishin9 hours ago11 comments
  • shrubble8 hours ago
    So much of the government is like this, they will hire some connected guy to manage something in a slightly competent manner.

    Just learned that the federal government has long term leases on office buildings that congressmen have a financial interest in. More disappointment.

    • N_Lens3 hours ago
      I think the level of corruption and blatant disregard for laws by the privileged we're seeing is unlike anything in modern history. If Nixon's watergate happened today it wouldn't even be a blip in the 24hrs news cycle, that's how far gone the erosion of institutions and rule of law is.
      • drdaeman15 minutes ago
        > it wouldn't even be a blip in the 24hrs news cycle

        It would be, but both mass media and people attention spans have changed, so it would be very different in a lot of ways.

      • chneu36 minutes ago
        It's pretty wild how "normalized" it got within my generation.

        What's more wild is how much of the US believes that the other party would be much worse.

        To be clear, Republicans are absolutely the current cause of this insanity that's going on. The two party system doesn't help, but Republicans have committed insanity while claiming everyone else is doing worse. Trump is a literal pedophile who openly admitted to hating immigrants his entire life. We all saw this coming.

    • ajross7 hours ago
      To be clear: the crypto in question wasn't managed in even a slightly competent manner. It was literally embezzled.
      • nerdsniper6 hours ago
        It was embezzled in a slightly competent manner. Not very competently.
    • roysting6 hours ago
      [dead]
  • aryan148 hours ago
    And he has been and continues to make fun of the investigators, publicly mocking investigators and sending small amounts from the fraudulent wallets to investigators.

    Crazy world

    • duxup6 hours ago
      If he "invests" some of his funds ... could get a pardon.
      • inlined5 hours ago
        Tbf, accepting a pardon is legally admitting guilt per SCOTUS and disgorgement would allow the funds to be sized
        • trhway3 hours ago
          Dr. Fauchi pardon comes to mind. I doubt that his accepting of pardon was an admission of guilt. He wasn't even charged, so how can he admit the guilt?

          And i think that similar preemptive pardon here, without charge and thus any guilt admission, wouldn't allow the fund seizure.

          • SV_BubbleTime3 hours ago
            It was though. It wasn’t a conditional “everyone but Facui because some people liked him” thing.

            He lied under oath about his knowledge of gain of function at the Wuhan lab. He is guilty of at least that.

        • avaer5 hours ago
          In theory. Do you really think that would happen in the current ecosystem?
        • duxup5 hours ago
          Even "better", Trump can extort more ...
      • knowitnone36 hours ago
        with that dirtbag, anybody can get a pardon - even illegal immigrants and all they need is a dollar
    • 7 hours ago
      undefined
    • laughing_man3 hours ago
      The one thing the government will not tolerate is embarrassment. There's no way he avoids a long prison sentence.
    • grugagag8 hours ago
      He’s reaping what he saw. Things aren’t looking good for him nor his father, a lesson both of them will painfully learn from. Father career is possibly over.
      • lostlogin8 hours ago
        > Things aren’t looking good for him nor his father, a lesson both of them will painfully learn from

        You’re a hell of an optimist.

        I’d say that it’s just as likely that the pardon sharpie is being readied, just as soon as the super PAC donation clears.

        • paulpauper7 hours ago
          Put it into Trump's coin as a donation
          • jLaForest7 hours ago
            Trump already rug pulled
            • kevin_thibedeau7 hours ago
              Bribes are $3M cash. He's good.
            • paulpauper7 hours ago
              why would that make a difference
              • lupire6 hours ago
                X can't bribe Y by buying Z that Y has no interest in.
      • londons_explore8 hours ago
        > Father career is possibly over.

        Plenty of people would happily flush their career down the drain to run away with their family and $90M

        • tartoran6 hours ago
          I guess so but what about when you get caught and get nothing?
          • lazidean hour ago
            Just like many people are optimists in thinking criminals will get consequences, criminals are often optimists in thinking they won’t get consequences.

            Both have cherry-picked their life experiences to support this view.

          • knowitnone36 hours ago
            if you get caught. just saw a video on a couple who stole a Brinks armor car; disappeared into Europe with new identities; never caught until female turned herself in. Not everybody gets caught.
      • bayarearefugee6 hours ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_granted_executi...

        Pretty sure they'll both be fine as long as they still have access to that money.

      • jongjong5 hours ago
        He and his son should be in jail. This is criminal; whether it's theft or criminal negligence.
      • paulpauper7 hours ago
        the feds haven't even acknowledged there was a theft. it's possible they still don't know or somehow don't have the evidence to bring charges
        • caminante7 hours ago
          Or this is a false accusation.

          I don't have the knowledge to sanity check the claims, but I would've figured someone would be getting rolled by now. I recall that the dad was scrubbing socials along with the son, but that could be token harassment.

          • big_youth6 hours ago
            They did something, how else could the son flex watches worth 6 figures.
            • caminante5 hours ago
              Likely? Yes.

              Watches? You can also be right. Though, I don't think you need $90 million to spend <$1 million on a watch to splurge.

        • wmf6 hours ago
          The feds won't say anything until after they arrest the father and son. Obviously there is an investigation going on but it takes more than a few days.
  • MisterTea8 hours ago
    A bit lost here. Is there more backstory to this? It reads as if the government contractors son stole the 90 million from the government?
    • alistairSH7 hours ago
      Correct. US Marshalls have a contract with this guy’s dad to mange their crypto holdings (seized as part of investigations). Kid steals money but can’t resist showing off to friends and gets “busted”. Except the government still doesn’t appear to acknowledge a theft even occurred and the kid taunts investigators by sending them small amounts of ETH.
      • knowitnone36 hours ago
        just to let the kid know, I'm one of the investigators. I hate being taunted with any type of cryptocoin, cash of any denomination. I also hate gold and silver. I won't sleep until I catch you or $10 whichever comes first.
      • direwolf207 hours ago
        Is this the part everyone's telling me about where fascists are deeply incompetent?
        • wmf6 hours ago
          It's not political. Most government contractors are barely competent and computer security is hard.
        • arjie6 hours ago
          I doubt the present administration is particularly competent at bureaucracy but this theft occurred in Oct 2024 while the Biden administration was in charge. To be honest, Trevor Milton's pardon after donating a few million to Trump's campaign mean that any sum of money over $2m in government contractor hands is probably at risk. With a $2m price on pardons, it's just a question of mechanizing the machine.

          Or, as Trump might say, "Bring back the autopen!"

        • keyle5 hours ago
          Fascism is a lack of emotional intelligence, which is basic intelligence. Empathy and compassion are a form of basic intelligence.
    • ortusdux8 hours ago
      • FatalLogic7 hours ago
        This would be a much better link for this post

        There's a lot more detail, and delivered in more professional way

        • altairprime7 hours ago
          If you email the mods about this (and link to your comment), they might well agree and update the post link.
  • caycep6 hours ago
    Molly White really is quite thorough
  • tcfunk4 hours ago
    Slightly tangential question but what’s with govt seized crypto assets? I had a bit of Litecoin a while back and went to check my wallet one day to find an FBI landing page instead. Is that just theirs now? Feels a bit like the gov seized control of my savings account.
    • collingreen3 hours ago
      Same - lost 500 LTC and 5ish BTC to fbi raid of an exchange back when BTC was ~$12. Sure would love to get that back at current prices!
  • cj6 hours ago
    Tangent: what does the govt do with seized crypto? Does it eventually get liquidated?
    • wmf5 hours ago
      They used to auction it but I think now they are holding it in a "strategic reserve".
  • paulpauper8 hours ago
    It appears the feds were so incompetent they didn't realize the theft had occurred until AFTER Zach's post went viral, and even then, nothing may happen. And to think, had Lick done nothing he likely would have gotten away with it. Perfect crime undone by ego.
  • misiti37805 hours ago
    Is the accusation the dad stole the crypto, or the dad AND the son stole the crypto ?
    • geor9e5 hours ago
      The headline is that the son stole the crypto. Maybe your sarcasm went over my head, and you're just saying that the dad is definitely involved too. In which case, probably.
      • misiti37804 hours ago
        i wasnt be sarcastic, it seems so easy to prove i cant believe the kid needed to DOX himself. the US Government puts his dad in charge of shitload of crypto and his son starts live streaming himself buying expensive watches - seems like a slam dunk to me
    • wmf5 hours ago
      It's not clear.
  • Mistletoe6 hours ago
    There’s another crypto thief that is the son of the head government official…
  • gmuslera8 hours ago
    There's no honor among thieves.
    • cucumber37328428 hours ago
      This isn't a "honor among thieves" thing. This is a "getting one over on someone you don't like because there's no consequences" thing.

      This is a petty dispute. I'm not gonna go put a bullet in someone who over a petty dispute like this. Nobody is, not even thieves and other people who live outside the law. That's just absurd. Someone who I've wronged in doing so (i.e. someone who likes them) might put one back in me. Or there might be other consequences. People let those things go because it's just not worth it vs the risk of consequences.

      But say I can do something that will cause the government to go after someone for me at no risk to myself... That's basically what happened here.

      This is basically an attempted (we'll see if it succeeds) DDOS reflection attack but with government.