Accidentally broke the law and now im fucked

Cash out and report it for the coming year under gambling and you won't have to worry.

that seems like a terrible idea - they audit me and now what
where'd i gamble? it just makes no sense

Judt tell them you're a web developer who made a useful web app and the eth came from donations

>Guys I ran a ponzi scheme help me
get fucked.

dude I have cashed out over $400k over the past 3 years and reported it all as gambling, after consulting with an accountant and haven't had any trouble. go talk to one and I guarantee you he'll tell you the same thing.

whatever you do, PAY YOUR TAXES. The IRS wants everyone to pay their taxes, they will not turn you in if it looks shady as long as you pay your taxes. If you're a drug dealer, they still want you to pay your taxes. They will not try to get you in trouble unless you avoid paying your taxes.

also put a couple of your ETH towards an accountant or tax lawyer and do this right. You don't have to incriminate yourself and you don't have to get into trouble for this.

t. married to a lawyer

the thing is they can check the contract code although its kind of tough and obfuscated a bit, i could easily just swap the data contract out for another one without the "ponzi" elements, that's not really the issue

the real issue is just that i didnt do any "KYC" (didnt make anyone register an account) so i just have this large anonymous amount of eth

what's with this "drug dealer" meme?

>they will not turn you in if it looks shady as long as you pay your taxes

why do you say this? honestly wondering

I am happy to pay my taxes, just curious. this is not about tax evasion, i just dont want to get into deep shit because i sold myself out for no reason

holy shit

Send your ETH to an exchange. Withdraw it to another eth public key. Voila, you have clean ETH. Government is not gonna look at your public key, look at where the eth came from, look at the exchange, ask and correspond to find out which address you deposited from etc.

>also put a couple of your ETH towards an accountant or tax lawyer and do this right.
I am happy to do that.
You don't have to incriminate yourself and you don't have to get into trouble for this.
THIS is my concern. "anonymous people paid me ETH for digital trading cards" seems unbelievable

>Government is not gonna look at your public key, look at where the eth came from, look at the exchange, ask and correspond to find out which address you deposited from etc.
that's the thing though, how do you know? you are just speculating. i think in a few years they probably will.

fake your own death

>Government is not gonna look at your public key
all it takes is 2 clicks on any US-based thing to see
>this guy sent ETH from coinbase and polo (or w/e) to the same address... but that address received 82 ETH on dates x and y from other addresses

if i get audited they'll obviously ask about that address, why wouldnt they?

You have to flee to another country and fake your death and then live a life on the run.
Feels bad when you accidentally create a ponzi happens to best of us.

RIP

say it was sent by accident

lmao
the 'ponzi' thing is actually pretty small part of it, people love the card game. i just thought since i had the skill to do it why not implement something that would get people interested... didnt expect it to get huge

i did no marketing either

"i have no clue where that 82 eth came from or what happened to it afterward"
somehow i think the IRS wont buy this

shapeshift you retard.

after that, just don't cash it out and start buying shit with eth directly

don't declare it then, the irs is unconstitutional and immoral af, just tell them to fuck off and keep it in cryptos or cash out for gold

It's not really a lot.
Shuffle across exchanges like Wex, Binance, Kucoin.
Shapeshift (use Tor) to Monero, pass across a few wallets, Shapeshift back (use Tor) in different increments.
Cash out using BTC ATMs and LocalBitcoins over a month or two.

I don't care about cashing it out. I am insane and believe that crypto will replace fiat yadda yadda. Or I can cash out some other way - no big deal.

The problem is just this:
I know the post is long but this is the main issue

just say you mined it then

so you’re worried about getting tracked right?
i can sell you a solution for 200 links
let me know if you’re interested

if you give me a valid and workable solution I'd happily send you something, but most of the suggestions ITT are non-starters

I mined 82 ETH? with no record of it or anything?

what record of should there be? say its back pay from a mining group you used to be in

I assume the IRS expects some documentation, without that I'll just have some shady recent transaction from me mixing the ETH... it'll just be some chunk of ETH for this year alone

>most of the suggestions ITT are non-starters
please explain how faking your own death is a non starter

and by 'documentation' what i mean is (if you dont know) you can literally track every ETH transaction back to the point where it was mined

say its a back dated lump sum then, sheesh baby's first tax avoidance

yeah but they won't, if the people who work at the irs had any intellegence they wouldn't be working at the irs, they would be in the private sector

thanks
Basically just cash out some of your crypto
use that money to "pay" for said ether "offline"

They can't claim that you made the contract and scammed people if you tell them you bought that ether from someone else offline.

Is this workable?
I'll post my address if so

just tell them you did through local bitcoins or something like that

>sheesh baby's first tax avoidance
heh
again I don't care about tax avoidance i just don't want to end up in jail for violating some weird currency legislation

but again "just say x" seems like a really weak defense

that sounds like a great idea but then i have a sort of inverse problem - where'd i get the funds to buy it in the first place

thanks OP

0x5b2727bbe02521934781bebba03b70ecc8edde1c

your legit earnings
you do have some right?

or you can say you borrowed some from friends and hope they don't ask for documentation regarding that

9/10 criminals that end up behind bars self incriminate, the irs are fucking brainlets, don't declare and they won't know

i'm sure you can do the basic research on illegal income taxation yourself

something to consider:
it's under 82k.
So they know if they come after you over where you got the 82k, you're just going to exercise your right to remain silent and plead the fifth a lot. which is what you should do if they do come for you.

they'll have to spend time trying to track down how you made the money, hire an expert to read your smart contract code, etc. given the difficulty of the investigation they won't be able to justify bankrolling it

I have nothing other than my crypto stuff from last year which would implicate me in this pretty much
yeah but what about last year? they are gonna get coinbase info one way or the other, they have already started.

1. Trade your eth for monero
2. Trade your monero into eth
3. ????
4. PROFIT!!!

>yeah but what about last year
I told you self incrimination was the road to failure

>they are gonna get coinbase info one way or the other, they have already started

my guess: 3 years from now they will have my transaction data and will see that i bought/sold eth and sent money to my bank account

see

I think undocumented borrowings should be fine.

>Sent coinbase coins and illicit coins to the same address.
Wtf is wrong with you?

am I getting some linkies OP? hahaha
eth would be fine too :^)

>I think undocumented borrowings should be fine.
people could theoretically lend me this amount of money, the problem is in the pudding. "My dad lent me $90k" "ok let's see the withdrawal" - ?

say it just appeared in your account, I used to play poker with dodgecoin on a website called pokershibes and someone depoisted 50 grand in my account once, say it just appeared

continuing, most likely your best course of action is declare the 82k as regular investment income.
they'll take your word for it
just make sure not to snitch on yourself if they come knocking

say you don't have access to your dad's bank account?
I'm just throwing ideas here
like how I'd go about it
I don't think they really have a right to ask for that. Do they?
brb I'll read up on it

the US government is is scrambling to figure out what the fuck a crypto currency even is, the IRS doesnt have the time, the resources or the understanding to heavily research and investigate what you are doing. as long as there is no lawsuit against you or something and you withdraw less then 20 000 USD per year you should be fine.

this is why you should open your coinbase under a false identity

> I sent some of that ETH to the same binance address mentioned above.

This is your ONLY problem then.
How much was it?
If it wasn't much, and if it wasn't too far in the past, start paying for stuff with ETH using this address.

I know a few services that accept ETH, sites that sell youtube views, twitter followers, facebook likes, etc.
Scour sites like blackhatworld and offer to pay in ETH from this address.

Your goal here is to claim that you are just one of the guys that got paid from this address.
As long as a long time hasn't passed where this address had no activity, and you didn't send too much the first time, just do this over an extended period of time.

Wait a minute you sent your ENTIRE earnings from the ponzi to the address linked to your identity in one go? What was the dollar value of the ETH deposit at the time of the deposit?

>swap ETH for XMR
>put XMR some XMR on a ledger
>sell some XMR for BTC also put on ledger
>hide it somewhere
>????
>lambo in 14months

Fuck sake OP.

Zk-snarks coin mixing contract. Monero via a non-US exchange. Done.

And why even cash out? Leave it in Monero. If you get desperate just cash a little out.

This is the full situation
attempting to tl;dr:
- modest electronic trail from coinbase+trex to binance (even a brainlet could click around and find transfers from coinbase+trex to a single wallet consistent between the two)
- binance wallet visibly had 82 ETH go through it with no explanation
- all the IRS would have to do is ask Binance if that account belongs to me (I did KYC on binance so they have my name and such)

it would take some knowing/doing, they'd have to basically have my coinbase info AND look at my transactions, but that opens the can of worms

"it just appeared out of nowhere" - fuck man
I can come up with a lot of excuses but I don't see how any of them hold water really, the IRS can't be that incompetent, and if they are I should be able to get away with something simpler than making up dumb excuses

are you retarded?

> 3 years from now they will have my transaction data
Good you have time then.
This is illegal in the US but not everywhere.
If it's an option, renounce your US citizenship and move to a country where this won't get you into trouble,

Do you think you could claim it from the sale of items?

Is what you did even illegal? Is a ponzi scheme illegal if it's done with digital funny money and nit currency?

>(I did KYC on binance so they have my name and such)
told ya 9/10 criminals self incriminate

*not

coinbase - linked to my identity
trex - linked to my identity
binance - "chink exchange" as described above but they have my identity
2017:
mined/bought/sold, sent things around, did lots of trading. Sent ETH from both trex and coinbase to a single binance address at various points.

I assume IRS will have trex data eventually but I am certain they will have coinbase eventually which means I'll get dinged for not paying taxes if I don't file.

2018:
made 82 eth from this contract
sent it in various increments, 10, 20 at a time.

if you look at the binance deposit address you can see that
basically my activity for 2017 and then these chunks in 2018

if I DO file I will pop up on the radar and they might scrutinize my accounts for that reason alone and from there they could find that Binance address

Why don't you do another smart contract game and make a million. You are stressing about something which might never even affect you.

That's the most above board plan, I am just afraid to go to prison for money laundering and such since we didnt do KYC on the "collectible card" sales

understood
just wondering how to play it from here

not so sure if it's gonna sound plausible but could you cash out some and claim that you paid after you received the eth?
that'd leave some doubts due to the moral hazard that'd accompany it but at least it'd make more sense right?

>solution: make more money and then claim that instead
?
heh

don't mention the contract and etc. and pretend it has nothing to do with you
did you register the domain under your name?

dont give away anymore info, if this ponzi meme is a crime don't tell them, you have a good chance of getting away with it if you don't say anything, if you do declare there defiantly going to book you for it. I wouldn't worry about it mate, the irs are brainlets

Can you prove though that you sold something?
You might need proof of such correspondence
e.g. if it's for freelancing services, you might need to provide chat logs from Upwork, or posts on /r/Jobs4Bitcoins/ or Bitcointalk discussing the job and the payment.

If you are terrified of getting done for tax evasion just pay the tax. Nobody gives a shit about an internet card game.

He could just roll the ETH into his new earnings and it looks legit. He is obviously skilled just also a dumbass. All he had to do was do the monero switcheroo before cashing out and he would be fine.

Listen to this man.

It doesn't matter how many taxable events you did in 2017. The IRS only cares if you pay taxes. The maximum amount of taxes you can owe is a short term gains on your gains within 2017. Just pay whatever is the correct amount for short term gains and the IRS won't ask any further questions.

The IRS doesn't go through auditing to make sure you didn't spend income on illegal activities. They just check that you paid at least as much as you owe in taxes. Ponzi schemes are under the CFTC/SEC/etc., not the IRS.

So, just do the Monero wash and pay your taxes, and then it won't matter.

Transfer to multiple monero wallets. Cash monero back into Ethereum classic. Wait 2 years. Cash out your millions but make sure you pay taxes.

This board was better when it was filled with libertarian retards like me

I don't think OP has a cashing out problem but has a problem being linked with his illegal ponzi styled trading card game.

Send some if that ETH my way buddy, I'll cash it out for ya

are you retarded
make another binance account, exchange to XMR, exchange back and cash out

alternatively just directly send it to coinbase and cash out beacuse literally not a single government worker will waste his time looking at your eth transactions on the internet, EVEN IF he did he could not prove that you are the one running the money, you might have exchanged it with someone else who wrote the site

or just send me the money and I'l take care of it and you never have to worry again :^)

>dont give away anymore info, if this ponzi meme is a crime don't tell them, you have a good chance of getting away with it if you don't say anything, if you do declare there defiantly going to book you for it. I wouldn't worry about it mate, the irs are brainlets
>If you are terrified of getting done for tax evasion just pay the tax. Nobody gives a shit about an internet card game.

fuck

This. It's just an online game ! With money involved

are you sure this card game is even illegal user, give us an outline of the business structure, if you wern't pushing it as a ponzi then I don't think theres anything wrong and you could declare as income.

the other guy sounds more rational tbf

Just claim your profit under capital gains and the IRS wont bother you. My plan is to claim my money into a Tax Free Savings account, but i live in Canada so idk if you have similar TFSA's in america

>He could just roll the ETH into his new earnings and it looks legit. He is obviously skilled just also a dumbass. All he had to do was do the monero switcheroo before cashing out and he would be fine.
The issue isn't really the contract/etc because like i said i can pretty much switch the data contract on the back end and it won't be super obvious what happened. they'd really have to scrutinize it with some programmers and such.

the issue is this and this those two posts contain the pertinent details
I'm getting a lot of conflicting advice from everyone honestly, just look at this post quality has changed m8 but i appreciate that you are here and entertaining these ideas of mine :^)

OP
?

Am I getting linkies? :(

sec.gov/fast-answers/answersponzihtm.html

it doesn't even sound like a ponzi

>He could just roll the ETH into his new earnings and it looks legit. He is obviously skilled just also a dumbass. All he had to do was do the monero switcheroo before cashing out and he would be fine.
hindsight etc
I was just an idiot and didn't consider all of this
It sounds dumb and yeah muh ponzi but there's an actual card game here and the muh ponzi thing was just a tiny aspect that is kind of ignorable

basically if they dont actually READ the contract it won't even come up.

im just worried about
"yeah man I totally got this 82 ETH from selling cards to an ethereum card game"

The problems are these:
1) it's all anonymous. i did no KYC. this is a big no no. pic related, same sort of thing.

so pretty much i need to weigh
- the odds that i will report this to the IRS and have them forward my info to the SEC and tell them that im doing illegal shit

against

- the odds that they'll get coinbase's info 3-5 years from now and THEN look at my transactions and THEN follow it all back
the problem is basically what said, i just had to do the switcheroo before moving it around but didnt and now this is the position im in.

see above in this post, KYC problems and such

considering online gambling is also illegal in most of the US, i would say OP's clock is ticking before his asshole is raided at pound-me-in-the-ass federal prison

i don't really get why you're worried man. worst case scenario, you get fucked on taxes, but it was all free money anyways. this shit is so damn new, you think the govt can figure shit out about eth ponzi/game contracts? the best move is to wait. better solutions and options for figuring out taxes will come along. granted, this could go both ways and the govt might actually become capable of tracking this all a lot better, but realistically, that's not going to happen in the U.S. at this point, unless the ongoing withering of the IRS results in the agency being more aggressive and seeking out easy targets like crypto

I saved your address and will consider it
it's not a real ponzi scheme thats just what comes to mind when people see/hear about it, like a lot of the crypto games out there today.

the point is that they COULD make that distinction

let's say they don't

the bigger issue is that i just sold a lot of digital trading cards to anonymous nerds in a chat room (my group) to whom i am also anonymous

so I report this and now I've self-incriminated
OR
I don't report it and maybe they find out somehow later because i didn't have the foresight to commit fraud properly

so which is best?

There's no way for them to know you ran a ponzi unless someone complains and the contract address gets investigated.

The IRS won't look into where it's from, if you just claim a zero-cost-basis and pay taxes with that... I don't think they can even figure out what the smart contract does, if they even figure it that it came from one.

Just claim it's an online store or a donation address of some sort. Not their job to check it, that's the anti-money-laundering side of things, and if you have other excuses for having such earnings, you'll most likely not get that specific address source probed too much if at all.

Your only real concern here is if someone files a complaint against your ponzi somewhere.

when I said "sale of items" I was referring to the original source of money used to buy the ethereum offline in the first place