The end of E-Gold

[AzeAzeAze]

Hello,

Guys I was shocked reading this article, E-gold users should read it, I think it's the end!

On July 7, 2008 a voluntary petition regulated by Chapter 7, Bankruptcy Code (Title 11, United States Code) was submitted in respect of E-gold Ltd. and Gold & Silver Reserve (G&SR) Inc. The present petition was submitted voluntarily, i.e. personally by the Chairman of E-gold Douglas Jackson and Director Barry K. Downey.

July 7, 2008 -- On July 7, 2008 a voluntary petition regulated by Chapter 7, Bankruptcy Code (Title 11, United States Code) was submitted in respect of E-gold Ltd. and Gold & Silver Reserve (G&SR) Inc. The present petition was submitted voluntarily, i.e. personally by the Chairman of E-gold Douglas Jackson and Director Barry K. Downey.

Since Chapter 7 of Bankruptcy Code determines the duties of the debtor to notify all the organization creditors of the bankruptcy process in advance, this public utterance targets to inform all the creditors that E-gold Ltd. and Gold & Silver Reserve (G&SR) are not liable for the obligations to the creditors, i.e. the companies are insolvent.

In view of this fact during these coming three days a liquidation proceeding of E-gold Ltd. and Gold & Silver Reserve (G&SR) Inc. will be started. The proceeding will be conducted under the control of the federal governor appointed by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The name of the federal governor is not a subject to disclose yet. After the appointment of the governor the whole property of E-gold Ltd. and Gold & Silver Reserve (G&SR) Inc. will be tuned into the bankruptcy assets and will be put out to auction to fulfill the existing liabilities to the creditors. The appointed governor collects the property of the debtor (except the property excluded from the bankruptcy assets and obtained by the debtor after the bankruptcy proceeding began), reduces to money and distributes the collected funds to the creditors following the requirements stated in article 726. Today the property of E-gold is presented by the computers and the office furniture. The registered capital of the company is $20000. All the gold accounts of E-gold Ltd. and Gold & Silver Reserve (G&SR) Inc. Will be arrested during 7 days and then will be studied with the object to legitimacy and legality of the funds in them.

The liquidation proceeding of the legal entities E-gold Ltd. and Gold & Silver
Reserve (G&SR) Inc. will be performed as soon as practicable in accordance with article 704 which states that "the trustee shall collect and reduce to money the property of the estate for which such trustee serves, and close such estate as expeditiously as is compatible with the best interests of parties in interest."

We, Douglas Jackson and Barry K. Downey, announce the possible massive ddos-attacks due to the declared bankruptcy of E-gold Ltd. and Gold & Silver Reserve (G&SR) Inc., hereupon the system may operate unstable.

In accordance with the Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code after the completion of the liquidation proceeding E-gold Ltd. and Gold & Silver Reserve (G&SR) Inc., and thus e-gold will go into liquidation.

[About-PM]

e-gold is in coma?

e-Commerce - E-gold Ltd. and Gold & Silver Reserve (G&SR) Inc. bankruptcy announcement

E-gold is a bankrupt. What is going on? | eCommerce Journal - Learning more about virtual economy

WHATS GOING ON?

[DGCmagazine]

This is just a fake release, anyone can put out press releases and I saw two fakes on two different systems. Mark, DGCmagazine

This message from AnyGoldNow:

Hi All,

Just to inform you that I talked to Doug (Jackson) last night.

He advised me that the "egold bankruptcy filing" being circulated on various forums is totally bogus.

e-gold has NOT filed for any "bankruptcy", and they are fighting the govt more than ever.

Regards,

Patrick,
AnyGoldNow to buy e-gold, e-Bullion, Pecunix, c-gold, Phoenix Silver
THE Exchange Provider
Any Gold, Any time, Anywhere

[JohnnyLocke]

That's disheartening. I had just gotten into using E-Gold sometimes too. Looks like it is back to paypal for me lol

[buaya]

Locking this thread until it is the truth that egold is down for good

[id62000]

e-gold may not be down, however, e-gold is now not as popular as it used to be. Many processors have security as good as e-gold, and networks better than e-gold now. One of the largest is perhaps e-passporte.

[id62000]

July 25, 2008

Douglas Jackson, the founder and director of the online payment service e-Gold and its parent company Gold & Silver Reserve, has ended a two-and-a-half-year battle with the Justice Department and pleaded guilty to charges pertaining to money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. He faces up to 20 years in prison on the money-laundering charge and up to 5 years in prison on the licensing charge.

Jackson was indicted in April 2007, following a December 2005 Secret Service raid on his company's offices in Melbourne, Florida.

He and two other senior e-Gold directors, who also pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, have also agreed to introduce user restrictions on e-Gold and to revamp the system to make it easier to detect money-laundering activities, fixing some design flaws that Jackson acknowledges allowed criminals to use the system for illegal purposes. The company has currently suspended the opening of new accounts.

The move marks a turnaround for Jackson, who has long maintained his innocence in a fight that he estimates has cost him in the "seven figures." He told Threat Level in an e-mail that rather than drag out the case, he opted to resolve it in a manner that allowed e-Gold to move forward and shake off its reputation as being a haven for criminals.

"From our perspective, the possibility of resolving the legal case in a manner that allows for a path forward, that provides an explicit roadmap enabling e-Gold to emerge as a regulated financial institution in full compliance with US law is greatly preferred over continued conflict," he wrote. "We acknowledge that we made mistakes and fully accept responsibility for those mistakes. Our goal throughout these recent negotiations was to set the stage for e-Gold to get a second chance and to get it right this time, to emerge as an institution that can become an integral and vital part of the financial and commercial mainstream."

E-gold is a privately issued digital currency backed by real gold and silver stored in banks in Europe and Dubai. Jackson, a former oncology doctor, launched the digital cash service in 1996 with a partner. At its height, the service had about 1,000 new e-Gold accounts opening daily, and processed between 50,000 and 100,000 transactions a day. That changed in the years since the government's raid.

"All e-Gold in circulation remains 100 percent backed by physical gold," Jackson wrote. But "there has been a substantial decline in transaction volume over the past two years."

The government claimed that e-Gold facilitated child pornography and identity theft by allowing criminals to pay for illegal images and launder other funds gained through credit card fraud and other crimes. The government had initially accused Jackson and e-Gold of aiding terrorists, but dropped that claim.

Back in 2006, Jackson called the charges a farce and described all of the ways in which the company tracked criminal behavior in its system. He also discussed how the company repeatedly helped the U.S. Postal Service and other federal agencies track child pornographers and credit card thieves who sent money through the service and even established undercover accounts for law-enforcement agents to help them ensnare crooks. He had dismissed the idea that Gold & Silver was an unlicensed money-transmitting business at the time, since he said the company never accepted cash from customers, only wire transfers.

Jackson now says he has high hopes that the new e-Gold that emerges after they've implemented the required changes will attract new customers that previously stayed away because of the perception that e-Gold was favored by criminals.

"From its beginning in 1996, e-Gold has been regarded with skepticism and reflexive mistrust," he wrote Threat Level. "E-Gold as an explicitly regulated financial institution however is a whole new ball game. . . . Very importantly, the e-Gold that will emerge from this turbulence will be a community that does not tolerate criminal abuse and maintains highly effective defenses to detect and interdict such abuse."

Sentencing is set for November.

In addition to possible jail time, Jackson faces a possible fine of up to $500,000 for money laundering and $250,000 for operating an unlicensed business. Jackson told me last year, however, that a high-level U.S. attorney had told him privately, "We know you guys aren't bad guys, and the last thing we want is for anyone to go to jail. We don't want the company to fail we just want you to clean up your act."