Tenn. Man Claims Innocence In Romney Tax Blackmail Probe
Source: TPM
In early September, when the Democratic National Convention was underway in Charlotte, N.C. and the presidential race was hitting full stride, a brief stir was created by what many people presumed to be an elaborate hoax. In statements posted online, an anonymous person or group claimed to have stolen tax documents belonging to Mitt and Ann Romney from a PricewaterhouseCoopers office in Franklin, Tenn., and further claimed to have put encrypted copies of the documents on thumb drives and sent those thumb drives out in the mail.
A ransom was demanded ($1 million in Bitcoins, a virtual currency), a deadline was set (Sept. 28), actual envelopes containing actual thumb drives actually turned up (at the offices of the Williamson County, Tenn. Democratic and Republican parties), and the Secret Service got involved (a spokesman told TPM the agency was “investigating the incident.”) But then the deadline came and went, the Romneys’ tax returns did not become public (despite the fact that, presumably, no ransom was paid), and the whole thing became a small, odd, nearly forgotten footnote in the story of the campaign.
Recently, though, a Tennessee man has come forward to say that the Secret Service has been investigating him in connection with the case. He has taken the unusual step of publicly identifying himself as the target of a federal probe because, he says, he is innocent. And he wants his stuff back.
According to Franklin, Tenn. resident Michael Brown, Secret Service agents raided his home on the morning of Sept. 14, about two weeks after the anonymous posts started circulating on the website Pastebin.com.
Read more: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/michael_brown_romney_tax_blackmail.php
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I've been involved in Bitcoin for some time - and Michael Brown is well-known in the bitcoin community. At one time (under his handle of "KnightMB"
he claimed to have lost 371,000 BTC to someone who hacked into his computer. That was some time ago, and was probably responsible for the more recent focus on encryption and security in the bitcoin client (the 'wallet' software you can put on your own computer).
Bitcoin has been responsible for some amazing stories; good and bad.
Yesterday, of course, it was announced that Wordpress - whose software runs 48% of the blogs on the planet (including, for example, the NY Times blog) - is now accepting Bitcoin, and will be tightly integrating it into their blogging platform.
My advice to all here would be to get involved in Bitcoin - it is the sure path to keeping the internet free and open.
Try http://www.weusecoins.com/
