The US Government Sold Almost 10,000 'Silk Road' Bitcoin Last Week

The United States government has been selling bitcoin confiscated from the Silk Road case in 2013. 

As Turner Wright reports at CoinTelegraph.com, a March 31 filing with U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York regarding the sentencing of James Zhong stated U.S. government authorities had begun liquidating roughly 51,352 BTC seized in the Ulbricht case.

According to the filing, officials sold roughly 9,861 BTC for more than $215 million on March 14, leaving roughly 41,491 BTC.

“The Government understands [the seized Bitcoin] is expected to be liquidated in four more batches over the course of this calendar year,” said the court filing.

“The Government understands from IRS Criminal Investigation - Asset Recovery & Investigative Services that the second round of liquidation will not be sold prior to Zhong’s sentencing date.”

In November, Zhong pled guilty to wire fraud charges related to executing a scheme to steal Bitcoin from Silk Road in 2012. U.S. authorities seized more than 50,000 BTC - worth more than $3 billion at the time - from his Georgia home in November 2021. It was one of the largest crypto seizures by the government until the February 2022 recovery of roughly $3.6 billion connected to the 2016 Bitfinex hack.

The Silk Road marketplace, which has been defunct for 10 years, originally allowed users to buy and sell illicit goods, including weapons and stolen credit card information.

However, the marketplace also drew the attention of U.S. authorities, who arrested Ulbricht in 2013. He is currently serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole.

I was arrested at the age of 29 and today I turn 39. I’ve lost my 30s to prison.

During that time, I’ve done my best to learn from my mistakes, better myself, and help others do the same.

I hope someday I can make amends as a free man as well.

— Ross Ulbricht (@RealRossU) March 27, 2023

The price of BTC has had a volatile month, dipping below $20,000 on March 10 and moving above $29,000 on March 29. At the time of publication, BTC’s price was above $28,000.

While the government has been selling bitcoin, other institutions like MicroStrategy have been acquiring it.

👀

— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) March 31, 2023

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The US Government Sold Almost 10,000 'Silk Road' Bitcoin Last Week

Investigation Reveals 'Revolving Door' Of DOJ, Big Tech Employees

Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

In the midst of an ongoing lawsuit against the Biden administration alleging collaboration with social media companies to censor Americans, a new report has detailed the extent to which former Justice Department (DOJ) employees are now working at “Big Tech” firms.

The logos of Big Tech companies Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, in file photos. (Reuters)

The American Accountability Foundation (AAF) investigated the resumes of recent hires and found that more than 360 current employees of Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook/Meta are former DOJ employees. Likewise, more than 40 DOJ employees, many of them in senior roles, previously worked at Big Tech firms.

According to the report, since President Joe Biden took office, Google hired 40 former DOJ staffers, Amazon hired 61, Microsoft hired 26, and Meta hired 53.

While staff often move between government and the private sector, “this case is different because unlike government and industry moving expertise back and forth (knowledge about procurement rules for example) what we have seen moving back and forth between DOJ and tech is a shared political agenda, specifically to silence conservative voices,” Yitz Friedman, AAF communications manager, told The Epoch Times.

“Sadly, it is evidence that in the Big Tech community, corporate policy is the government’s policy.”

This concern is heightened by recent evidence of collaboration between the DOJ and Twitter to silence Americans, particularly regarding political speech.

After buying social media platform Twitter, Elon Musk released thousands of internal emails that allegedly showed collusion between Twitter and DOJ officials to censor speech, including banning a report by the New York Post before the 2020 election that reportedly incriminated then-candidate Joe Biden in illicit payments scandals.

‘Campaign of Public Threats’

The release of the “Twitter files” follows a lawsuit by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt that alleges illegal collusion between the Biden administration and Big Tech companies to suppress free speech.

In a November 2022 interview with The Epoch Times, Landry stated that, because of the First Amendment, “the government doesn’t have the ability to censor speech, especially political speech. And so they can’t go out there and force these companies [to do it].”

Plaintiffs in this case filed a 364-page “finding of fact” document showing a “campaign of public threats against social-media platforms to pressure them to censor more speech on social media.” This document will be discussed in a congressional hearing on March 30 on the “Weaponization of the Federal Government.”

Read more here...

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Investigation Reveals 'Revolving Door' Of DOJ, Big Tech Employees

Vax Mandate For Boston City Workers Was Legal, State Supreme Court Rules

The city of Boston's Covid-19 vaccine mandate for city workers was legal, according to a March 30 ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court, after the city claimed that the ability to adequately combat the virus outweighed the risk of irreparable vaccine injuries to workers who were facing termination.

"The potential harm to the city and the public resulting from the spread of COVID-19 clearly outweighed the economic harm to the employees," wrote Justice Elspeth Cypher in the ruling.

The 2021 mandate required proof of vaccination or weekly testing - the latter of which was dropped after the Omicron variant emerged. This prompted a challenge from unions which claimed that the city had not properly negotiated the change.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was under advisement from Dr. Bisola Ojikutu - who told the court that the update was necessary because testing was likely insufficient to combat COVID-19 despite the fact that the vaccine performed terribly against Omicron and its subvariants.

The new ruling supercedes and overturns a 2022 preliminary injunction.

Workers who failed to get a COVID-19 vaccine under the mandate faced repercussions, including termination. Unions asked for a preliminary injunction so workers could not be punished. Their bid was initially rejected, with a trial judge finding plaintiffs had not demonstrated irreparable harm absent an injunction. Massachusetts Appeals Court Judge Sabita Singh reversed that ruling, finding that workers faced “substantial harm” if the mandate was not blocked and that the city’s failure to negotiate the policy meant plaintiffs were likely to succeed.

Singh said the case differed from others because it implicated issues of “bodily integrity and self-determination.”

Singh “abused her discretion” in issuing the injunction, which remained in place until Thursday, the state’s top court said.

The harm the plaintiffs were facing is solely economic because “they could have continued to refuse to become vaccinated and instead challenged the decision both in court and before” the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board (CERB), the court said. -Epoch Times

"Given the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic and its threat to the health and safety of the public, the decision to remove the testing alternative in the defendants’ COVID-19 policy constituted a nondelegable policy decision that could not be the subject of decision bargaining because any such requirement would have impinged directly on the defendants’ ability to provide essential public safety services to city residents," reads the ruling.

Meanwhile, Boston recently agreed to drop the mandate for the plaintiffs, firefighters and superior officers because "the parties desire to resolve this matter without the expense and uncertainty of further litigation, and in promotion of harmonious labor relations between them," according to the Boston Herald.

Sam Dillon, president of Boston Firefighters Local 718, told the Epoch Times: "I respect the Court’s decision to lift the injunction however I do not see it having any impact on our Union and members given the agreement we reached with the City in February."

"The Court’s decision in no way impacts the recent agreement between Local 718 and the City, and the Covid-19 mandate remains unenforceable to the members of Local 718," added Leah Barrault, who represented the plaintiffs in the case.

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Vax Mandate For Boston City Workers Was Legal, State Supreme Court Rules

Having Solved All Other Problems, California Sets Its Sights On Banning Skittles

Sometimes after you solve all of the major crises your state is facing, as California has clearly done with rioting, looting, shoplifting, drug abuse, homelessness, insane taxes and public defecation, you have to move on to smaller issues.

Like Skittles.

At least that's what's happening in California, where a proposed bill "could force popular candies like Skittles to change their recipes — or stop selling them in California altogether", according to a new report from SF Gate. 

Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel introduced Assembly Bill 418 earlier this year, which seeks to "prohibit the manufacture, sale and distribution of food products containing five chemicals linked to cancer and other health risks". 

One of those chemicals is titanium dioxide, listed as an ingredient in Skittles. 

A lawsuit was filed in California last year alleging that Skittles were "unfit for human consumption", but it was thrown out. In 2016, Mars, the parent company of Skittles, promised to phase out the use of the chemical in its candy. 

Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel put out a press release last month stating: “Californians shouldn’t have to worry that the food they buy in their neighborhood grocery store might be full of dangerous additives or toxic chemicals.” 

"Many of the dangerous additives currently banned in the EU and other nations are found in processed foods and candies that are marketed to children, low-income consumers, and communities of color in the United States," the release states. 

Eleven organizations, including the Consumer Brands Association, the National Confectioners Association and the California Grocers Association, all wrote a letter to the California Assembly Committee on Health last week opposing the bill, however. 

"All five of these additives have been thoroughly reviewed by the federal and state systems and many international scientific bodies and continue to be deemed safe," they wrote. Signatories claimed that the bill "usurps the comprehensive food safety and approval system for these five additives and predetermines ongoing evaluations."

"We’re aware of the opposition letter and believe that the lack of meaningful arguments, data, and evidence actually strengthen the case for our legislation," Gabriel volleyed back. 

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Having Solved All Other Problems, California Sets Its Sights On Banning Skittles

California Man Arrested 10 Times In 31 Days, Faces 33 Charges

Authored by Jason Blair via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A man in Fresno County, California was arrested 10 times within a span of 31 days, according to the Clovis Police Department.

Keith Chastain. (Courtesy of Clovis Police Department)

Keith Chastain’s first arrest was on Feb. 19, and his tenth was on March 21. He was booked by Clovis police six times and other agencies four times.

Chastain, 38, faces 18 felonies and 15 misdemeanors. Charges include six stolen vehicles, vandalism, DUI, possession of a controlled substance, fraud, and more, according to authorities.

“I don’t know what is happening in his life to cause him to steal so many people’s vehicles and property. It’s sad; I hope he gets some help,” Clovis Police Corporal Meredith Alexander told KMPH Fox 26.

On his tenth arrest, police received a tip over the phone and caught Chastain driving a stolen truck in Old Town Clovis. Police said he was on his way to the police station in the stolen vehicle to pick up his personal property.

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California Man Arrested 10 Times In 31 Days, Faces 33 Charges