Anybody consider the fact that the story here is that Coinfire made a mistake in reporting Ryan Kennedy had been arrested?

To recap yesterday’s events: Syscoin reported that Ryan Kennedy and Chelsea Hopkins of Moolah ilk had been arrested. CoinFire immediately published an article about the arrests, providing a long block quote from Ferdous S.  In case you don’t recall, Ferdous is a former owner of MintPal (maybe even current owner, although the Company House records still list Chelsea Hopkins as the sole Director of the Company).  In reality, and after a day of questioning people about the alleged facts in CoinFire’s article, Ferdous admitted that the arrest, if there was one, happened around Christmas 2014, and not recently.

CoinFire’s failure to report when the arrest happened is unusually sloppy given CoinFire’s Mike Johnson recently touting the publication’s strict editorial standards.  Also unusual were the vague references to a “document” evidencing the arrest, the convoluted chain of custody of said document, the non-disinterested sources confirming the story, and a nameless “contributor.”  Frankly, the story did not read did like a typical Coinfire story: pretty well thought out, inclusion of a step-by-step break down of how they know what they know, etc.

You might recall that Coinfire’s accounts have been hacked recently following their reporting about GAW facing various legal land mines (ahem…motive).

What? Fake/planted story?  Surely not . . .  But what about Syscoin’s blog and Ferd’s “confirmation” of this story?

Respectfully, Syscoin and Ferdous lack credibility – they believed Moolah the first time when there were obvious signs of trouble (not to mention legal baggage associated with their own initial coin offering – would they really want to create a record of this in court?). Another possibility is that Syscoin and Ferdous collaborated with Moolah to invent a fake lawsuit to exit the chaos from Moolah and Mintpal’s collapse.  It is notable that Syscoin and Ferdous are adverse parties to one another in the moo bankruptcy and civil matter, yet supposedly have the same attorney (ahem, holy conflict of interest). Remember, Ferdous fundraised a bunch of bitcoins to go after Moolah to so to be able to salvage MintPal. They might even need some cash right now (more motive).

Backs can be scratched.

Moreover, Syscoin and Ferdous probably would like questions about their Moo involvement to stop.  This story is convenient cover.

Have any crypto news outfits (if there are any) reported on the fact that the High Court has already ordered (December 23rd) a dissolution order in Moo’s Bankruptcy case and the implications thereof?

How about this: it sounds pretty far fetched that Ferd or Syscoin would be under confidentially orders to not speak of Kennedy’s arrest in December. Criminal proceedings are separate from civil matters and typically a matter of public record absent sex crimes or crimes against children. Now, confidentially can be built into a settlement agreement between private parties, which might be why there’s no news. Settlement would be in Syscoin and Ferd’s interest given their legal baggage related to unregistered security sales and operating an unregistered exchange (i.e., then they don’t have to admit to these behaviors in court and on the record). It also explains why they would go after Kennedy under involuntary bankruptcy rather than theft, embezzlement, fraud, etc.

Another possibility is that this was an effort to smoke out Kennedy is who clearly too smart for the people he allegedly ripped off.

Finally, are we sure that story was actually written by real CoinFire folks? Otherwise, we’re simply left to believe that CoinFire goofed and/or misled its readers. For me, CoinFire has at least earned the benefit of the doubt.