Has Bruce Wagner pulled off the biggest financial scam on the bitcoin community? UPDATE2 (A long fucking post.)
Bruce Wagner is the host of OnlyOneTV and the organizer of the Buttcoin Conference, and he’s a bit of a character. He seems to hate women and blames them for being victims of rape. He hadvehemently advocatedmoving the buttcoin conference toPattaya, Thailand, which just so happens to be the underage prostitution capitol of the world. Hell, he’s even posted about tips on how to pickup boys for sex.
But Bruce is also a convicted scammer and con man. He’s even fled the state and still owes thousands of dollars in outstanding debts and restitution. He’s had a mortgage fraud scheme backfire on him and been estimated to have stolen over a million dollars from people losing their homes in foreclosure.
And he may have pulled off one of the mostsuccessfulscamson the buttcoin community.
Mah Bit Con!
This all started unraveling when notorious Something Awful forums poster Three Olivesdid a little scratching under the surface of who Bruce was before bitcoins. It all started innocently enough with a post on the SpamCop forums. The post was nothing of importance, but it did have a rather unique signature:
Bruce Wagner
President
Bold Funding, Inc.
Chicago, Illinois
312-951-7960
bred[at]mailblocks.com
Who or what was Bold Funding? Glad you asked! Bold fundingperpetratedone of the largest mortgage frauds in Chicago history. Here’s how it all went down:
In 2004,Bold Fundingmaintained its “headquarters” at a commercial post office box at40 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago, Illinois.Bold Fundingalso operated a website at www.boldfunding.com and sponsored hundreds of commercials on local and out-of-state radio stations. On its website and radio commercials,Bold Fundingclaimed that it could save homes from foreclosure even after a Sheriff s sale. Homeowners in foreclosure sent thousands of dollars toBold Fundingunder the belief thatBold Fundingwould secure funding to refinance their mortgages and save their homes. The Defendants did not arrange or provide any funding. NeitherBold FundingnorBruce Wagnerever possessed an Illinois residential mortgage broker’s or lender’s license.
…
In Civil Court on April 18, 2006, Judge Julia Nowicki orderedBold FundingandBruce Wagnerto refund $115,858 in application fees to 74 former customers who never received any funding from the Defendants.Bold FundingandBruce Wagnerwere also fined $250,000, and the Defendants were permanently banned from providing any services in Illinois related to residential mortgage loans.
“The taking of monies from vulnerable homeowners in foreclosure under false pretenses is reprehensibleX,” Devine said. “Any company which purports to help homeowners who are in foreclosure must follow the law and fulfill its promises to assist its customers.”
Bruce Wagner and his Bold Funding company went to desperate homeowners who had recently beenforeclosedon in the housing crisis. Bruce and Co. told these desperate homeowners that “We can save your homes! Just pay a $2,000 deposit and we’ll get the paperwork through and keep you in your homes!”. Then they decided to sit on their hands and do nothing, while continuing to pocket the deposits these desperate homeowners had paid them.Trulypreying on the weak. All told, Bruce and Co. ended up having to pay back$115,858 to 74 homeowners plus a $250000 fine for beingworthlesssacks of shit.
One interesting comment on that page had this tidbit:
remember hearing about the collapse of Bold Funding on the news when it all went down in 2004. It was probably the largest, most sophisticated foreclosure scam I’ve ever heard about, before or since then. $116,000 or so in refunds doesn’t begin to compensate all of the victims. And now the owner, it seems, fled to another state and is trying to start his own talk show!
Actually, Bruce never fled Illinois, he was kicked out by the state according to his judgement.
A) Defendant Bold Funding and Defendant Bruce Wagner are permanently enjoined from owning, operating, managing, or supervising any form of business in Illinois which offers or provides any residential mortgage brokering, originating, or loan servicing activities.
B) Defendant Bold Funding and Defendant Bruce Wagner are permanently enjoined from offering or providing any residential mortgage brokering, originating, or loan servicing activities to any member of the public located in Illinois or for any property located in Illinois.
Could this just be a mistake? Maybe another Bruce Wagner? Nope, Bruce himself admitted it’s him, although it’s VERY MISLEADING and just a “misunderstanding”.
What happened though… in short is…. We were a victum of our own success. At the same time that we had just begun a radio advertising campaign… mortgage foreclosures hit an all time high.
We were suddenly swamped with applications to process. We hired more people as fast as we could, but there was no time to train them. It was a disaster. A management and planning disaster. As a result, we dropped the ball. We did not get applications processed fast enough.
Just a paperwork issue is all! Hundreds of thousands of dollars in paperwork issues. And a court judgement against him for paperwork issues. And being kicked out ofIllinoisand never being able to do business in that state again. Over paper-fucking-work issues.
I mean seriously, look at these poor people Bruce Wagner stole thousands and thousands of dollars from:
Two years ago Bobby Whitehead was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. He tried to keep working but eventually lost his business and fell behind in mortgage payments. Whitehead turned to a company called Bold Funding, giving them a $1,200 check.
“It was devastating because it was the last money I had because I’m on disability now. So I sent them the last money I had,” said Bobby Whitehead
Sorry Mr. Whitehead, it was all a big paperwork misunderstanding! Pobody’s Nerfect!
With some more formal digging, we also see some interesting things start to emerge. We see a pattern forming. Here’s Bruce’s business history:
1995-2002 Dublin OH/ Columbus OH
2002-03/2004 Chicago IL
03/2004-03/2005 Minden NV Business Perminately Revoked due to Registered Agent Resignation. Basically, he fled. Again.
2005-2006 FL? not sure
2006-yesterday New York
Today, Japan?
Guys gets around.
But all of this is in the past. The guy paid his fine, and he’s aproductivemember of society. Sure, he wasconvictedof financial fraud, and now he’s an unapologetic supporter of an anonymous currency, but what’ the harm there? What could he possibly be scamming for? What’s your angle Mr. Buttcoin? HMMMM???
Well, hang ontoyourbutts because it’s about to get real conspiracy theory-like up in here.
If you recall a number of weeks ago, there was an incident with MyBitcoin.com where they simply disappeared off the internet. No notice or anything, just vanished into thin air. MyBitcoin was the largest online wallet service, storing hundreds of thousands of buttcoin wallets, Bruce himself admitting to having 25,000 coins personally. Some investigating into the people behind MyBitcoin turned up nothing but a private whois and a server overseas. MyBitcoin was officially called dead.
But a week after MyBitcoin’s disappearance, suddenly the site comes up again. There’s a press release from someone named Tom Williams(take note) and here’s what he had to say about the situation:
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
From the desk of Tom Williams, operator of MyBitcoin.com
For immediate release.
As you have probably noticed, MyBitcoin.com had been down for almost a week due to an unfortunate event.
On Friday of last week we noticed that one of our pooled holding servers was missing a large amount of Bitcoins. After a prompt investigation we realized that the security of ourSCI(Shopping Cart Interface) system had been breached by an unknown attacker.
MyBitcoin was another victim of a hacking attempt on a buttcoin site. Hackers supposedly made off with half the coins on the site with MyBitcoin pledging to pay back the remaining coins. Bruce was another poor victim of the constant buttcoin scamsplaguingthe community, his friends and family, loyal supporters and himself personally losing hundreds of thousands of dollars of bitcoins.
Or, he perpetrated the whole thing and has pulled off the mostsophisticatedscam in buttcoin history.
Remember that name Tom Williams? Well, if we go back to Bruce’s scamming days with Bold Funding, we see something interesting. It allegedly looks like there was a bit of astroturfing going on for his company. Someone was posting very flattering things to say about Bold Funding, including gems like this:
That forum is littered in posts like this, all from the same guy, Tod Williams.
If you examine the writing style, you realize it’s very similar to Bruce’s writing style on the buttcoin forums. Moreover, it’s the type of thing bruce would do, pump up his own company to boost reputation. Bruce is a natural hype man. I am convinced this is Bruce astroturfing his old company.
UPDATE: As was pointed out in the comments, according to the court documents not a single client of Bold Funding got the funding they were promised. This “Tod Williams” seems to be the only one who has claimed to have success with Bruce’s company. Tod is most definitely a shill.
So, to reiterate.
Tod Williamsis Bruce hyping up Bold Funding
Tom Williamsis the owner who kept 50% of the coins in MyBitcoin
Bruce Wagneris/was heavily involved in both companies.
It’s my opinion that Bruce was, if not responsible, somehow profited from my MyBitcoin fiasco. I wouldn’t besurprisedif Bruce’s supposed 25,000 coin wallet is inactualitythe entireMyBitcoin wallet.
What a better person to steal an anonymous currency than someone who’s been convicted of doing that exact thing before.
Holy Shit.
UPDATE2: Some more interesting information from the comments section.
Earlier today, MyBitcoin.com had a hiccup and went down, throwing up error pages.
Here’s what it looked like:
Saved version here.
Here’s something interesting.
This is OnlyOneTV.com’s whois info:
So, MyBitcoin.com and OnlyOneTV.com are hosted at the same obscure, crappy webhost?
This is pretty damning information if I’m reading this right.
And for fun, here’s a bunch of other crimes Bruce has been convicted of:
Didn’t think of using lexisnexus 😛
fyi bruce’s stuff in new york:
http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/isc…xNo=101308-2008
http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/isc…xNo=101308-2008EDIT: Notice: The nature of this action is assault; landlord tenuant occuppancy, and use, fraud in the induicement.
The relief sought is $514,400. As of 11 December 2010, this is still ongoing.Yup, it sounds like Bruce is wanted in NY as well.
…
More digging:
Franklin County Ohio
YOB: 1961,DEFINITELYnot 29. Speeding tickets show relationship with Edward Gel, and was there till 2002.
EDIT: Evicted in Jan 2002 due to non-payment.
…
Shoot, there is a lot of dirt in Ohio’s Court records.
Lived there from 1995-2002 citations include:
Prostitution
Speeding
Eviction
Property Damage
InsuranceFraud
Trading FraudSuch a good person to play with Bitcoins.
(fyi –http://www.fcmcclerk.com/is the website for public records. this is all small claims, but shows a pattern)
Admin Note: I have spoken to Bruce and he has declined to comment on anything in this article for me.
August 31, 2011 @ 8:49 am
The article says multiple times that Bruce was “kicked out of Ohio” but according to the court order in the article he was just enjoined from having anything to do with mortgages or loans in that state. That doesn’t mean he was kicked out of Ohio. It just means that he can’t do business in real estate there. They are not the same thing. I know you’re just trying to be hyperbolic but it makes you sound like a dumbass.
August 31, 2011 @ 12:52 pm
YEAH DUMBASS GET YOUR SEMANTICS STRAIGHT ITS NOT LIKE HE HAD TO LIVE IN FEAR OF BEING MURDERED OR ANYHTING
August 31, 2011 @ 1:22 pm
yeah idiot way to sound functionally retarded, he wasn’t kicked out he was just banned from plying his trade in the entire state because he was a fraudster, get your facts straight i expect more from my comedy scamoney blogs.
August 31, 2011 @ 2:11 pm
He was barred from running his business there, and since I get the feeling that Bruce hasn’t worked a normal 9-5 job I’d say that he was effectively unable to stay in the state.
September 6, 2011 @ 9:14 am
Grasping for straws much, cointard?
August 31, 2011 @ 2:22 pm
man who made that macro, they fucked it up. “jsut” is the funniest part.
August 31, 2011 @ 9:11 pm
I jsut based it off of Tasty’s actual post: http://i.imgur.com/sfenu.gif
Bitcoin: Mining the Depths
August 31, 2011 @ 2:50 pm
[…] prostitution, assault, and fraud. I’ll keep it short and defer to the experts at Buttcoin: Has Bruce Wagner pulled off the biggest financial scam on the bitcoin community? (This is a long post, but so mind-blowingly worth it.) Filed Under: Articles, Exclusive, […]
August 31, 2011 @ 2:58 pm
You forgot to mention that, despite Bruce claiming in yesterday’s confession that Bold Funding was a legitimate business that “helped many people save their homes” )later downgraded from “many” to “a small percentage”), in Court things were another story:
“Bold Funding and Bruce Wagner could not identify anyone who actually received any funding through the efforts of the Defendants”
Bruce’s “company” could not indentify a _single_ individual who received even _one cent_.
Proving that:
a) Tod Williams was, without a doubt, Bruce and/or a Bold Funding employee
b) Bold Funding was a scam, not a business gone wrong
c) Bruce Wagner is a filthy fucking liar
August 31, 2011 @ 3:44 pm
Nice find!
I edited the post to point this out.
Has Bruce Wagner pulled off the biggest financial scam on the bitcoin community? Buttcoin explores the legal past of Bitcoin’s biggest supporter. | Bitcoin News Bits - CoinBits.com
August 31, 2011 @ 3:30 pm
[…] by borderpatrol link 3 […]
August 31, 2011 @ 3:41 pm
Lies I tell you! Lies!
August 31, 2011 @ 4:25 pm
he hasn’t pulled off a thing on the Bitcoin Community. the Bitcoin source code and block chain remain impenetrable and will become the international currency of the future with or w/o Bruce. Bitcoin will hit at least $1000 in the coming year and then higher as the production levels off.
August 31, 2011 @ 4:51 pm
Too obvious. You must next time be more subtle.
August 31, 2011 @ 5:32 pm
I’d also like to point out that mybitcoin.com is showing an error page for arvixe, a pretty obscure hosting company.
Which is where onlyonetv is hosted.
And also meethotfemales.com is hosted there, which shows some errors if you Google for “punlman”(bruce’s Skype name), which redirects to rentboy.com, a site notorious for male prostitution.
August 31, 2011 @ 6:03 pm
Looking into this now, you may be right.
BRB, checking on thangs.
August 31, 2011 @ 6:46 pm
He just deleted his Picassa photobook. Try search for things registered under “[email protected]”. According to this site, that’s Bruce’s email address:
http://brucesjournal.blogspot.com/2008/10/punlmangmailcom-thewagnerpost-wants-to.html
August 31, 2011 @ 8:13 pm
Bruce also … was involved … in the making of this film …
http://tinyurl.com/brucecaught
(VERY GRAPHIC)
September 1, 2011 @ 9:39 pm
Wholy poo poo! That made me hurl.
September 7, 2011 @ 1:47 pm
I fell down the stairs! Whaaahhh!!!
September 1, 2011 @ 12:12 am
A google search on punlman turns up plenty of leads.
September 1, 2011 @ 3:31 pm
is there room for “always bet on bruce” in the article?
September 1, 2011 @ 4:34 pm
Does everyone realize that “PUNL” is the acronym for the excuse that NAMBLA likes to use? Pure UNconditional Love. Isn’t Bruce always talking about giving away love unconditionally?
September 1, 2011 @ 9:57 pm
This is all I could find about PUNL and NAMBLA on Google. It seems fitting in a way, I suppose.
http://www.metrolyrics.com/midnight-nambla-lyrics-turbonegro.html
September 1, 2011 @ 11:22 pm
Clearly you have a lot of evidence here that says this dude is not to be trusted… but the fact that two websites run on the same host is circumstantial at best. I use Arvixe myself. They’re pretty good.
September 1, 2011 @ 11:40 pm
Brooocey? Is that you?
September 2, 2011 @ 4:03 am
Well, yeah I wanted to bbang one. Why would you get in the way of my dreams? #bitcoin
Smarter Google DNS | Jupiter Broadcasting
September 2, 2011 @ 6:43 am
[…] Has Bruce Wagner pulled off the biggest financial scam on the bitcoin community? […]
September 2, 2011 @ 7:40 pm
I have proof that Ed is actually Tom Williams.
I have compiled all of the evidence here: http://tinyurl.com/tadtomwilliams
You’re welcome!
September 2, 2011 @ 9:45 pm
Maybe this is the real reason the FBI got in contact with him. If a buttcoin.org blogger could connect these dots, it seems likely that the FBI did too.
Boy, this article makes a lot of sents too. The connections do not seem like a stretch at all.
A really good fucking comment on why Bitcoins are destined to fail. - Buttcoin - The P2P cyrpto-currency for butts.
September 3, 2011 @ 9:19 am
[…] on MetaFilter, someone re-posted my wildly popular article exposing the shady pasts of Bruce Wagner and his possible involvement in the MyBitcoin debacle. It was basically a rundown of my previous […]
September 6, 2011 @ 2:14 pm
buttcoin – cover your ass!
September 6, 2011 @ 11:16 pm
Holy crap, and I was following his Bitcoin show on YouTube. The evidence for his setting up this whole Mybitcoin.com scam is now overwhelming.
I want to remind everyone though, that any “wallet-keeping service” of any sort, for any wallet, physical or virtual, should be looked at as suspicious and quite frankly everyone that used the service is IMO a dumbass.
This of course will not deter me from continuing to mine and use BTC, however, and it should not deter anyone else either. But goddamn… fucking SHAME on Bruce Wagner if this is all true. Asshole would-be scammers need to realize the age they live in — you WILL be found out and ousted.
September 6, 2011 @ 11:22 pm
Oh yeah and also, if all this is true AND what he said about convincing much of his own family to use mybitcoin.com on his show (probably not true though), that would make him one of the biggest dickhead assholes I have ever witnessed existence of.
September 7, 2011 @ 1:40 pm
Well, that’s easy for you to say from safely behind your internet connection, but have you actually MEASURED his dickhead OR his asshole?
I thought not.
September 7, 2011 @ 5:52 pm
Colin : when brooce fired up that forum, I redirected all that crap to him
Colin : I’m bad, I’m nationwide
Powell: that is awesome!
Colin : he does not know how to deal with it obviously
Powell: Just like how to host a tv show
Powell: the fag is sitting there reading from his laptop babbling stuff
Colin : I never watched much of that
Colin : someone passed me a link once
Colin : I had to turn it off
Colin : him and ed were trying to sandwich some young fellow
Colin : gross
Powell: HAHAHAHA
Colin : then I watched the Adrianne Jeffreys episode because she accused me of stealing in her blog and in the NY Observer
Colin : terrible show
Colin : not the least reason that brooce never did figure out what bitcoin is for
Powell: Yeah I watched 10 minutes of his show and had to turn it off as well. The man does not know anything about technology or bitcoin for that matter. He is just an opportunist, today is mortgage refinance, tomorrow is bitcoin. In addition, he seems to be pretty fucking dumb.
Colin : yeah, dumb enough to not realise what a total fucking sleaze he is
Colin : and then not even cover his tracks
Powell: Exactly. The man is posting about picking up child whores all over the internet, and then he aims to be a tv celebrity?
Powell: what a dumbass
Colin : no shit
October 12, 2011 @ 9:13 am
could he have been created by the gov to discredit Bitcoin? Any thoughts?
Cryptogon News Network
October 18, 2011 @ 7:33 pm
Has Bruce Wagner pulled off the biggest financial scam on the bitcoin community?…
This article has been featured on Cryptogon News Network…
November 10, 2011 @ 7:16 pm
Jesus, somebody just go fucking kill this guy already.
[ Dossiê HBD ] Bitcoins, a moeda do futuro (no presente é só uma piada mesmo) | Hoje é um Bom Dia
January 5, 2013 @ 10:01 pm
[…] Bruce Wagner (a personalidade internética responsável por promover o tal MyBitcoin) é um notório salafrário financeiro e a suspeita é que ele lucrou, direta ou indiretamente, com a suposta […]
The Reddit bitcoin tip bot is the worst way to promote Bitcoin.Buttcoin.org
December 15, 2013 @ 6:38 pm
[…] inception. In fact, not to toot our own horn or anything, but with only 200+ upvotes, our article on Bruce Wagner was the top post of all time in the Bitcoin subreddit for several months before some shitty image […]
March 20, 2014 @ 8:02 pm
Bruce Wagner was in Pattaya for some months and then suddenly moved to Bangkok. I put this on my website Thailandbitchboard.com and in less than a day there are 115 hits! I smelled a rat a few weeks after I met him and stopped talking to him soon afterwards. He claimed he was lover of Paul Anks or someone like that. A 70s girly voice singer.
Anyway one thing I would like to say if the person who started on about him being a “fag” is that I am gay also and that talk is offensive. Bruce is a fraudster, period. We don’t say straight fraudster or gay and we definitely should not refer to him by a discriminatory means. He is a fraud and it keeps chasing him world wide. Probably packing and leavig town from Bangkok soon headed somewhere.
July 25, 2015 @ 8:17 pm
I am going to you site to read that after This guy contacted our twitter page out of the blue last night, don’t know the guy never conversed on social media before. Our sites, websites are about protecting children from child abuse, human-trafficking, sexual abuse, domestic violence, pornography. Last night i had no one clue about this guy who he was not until today, when i get send several tweets from a person, letting me know, then sending me to this article. How this guy loves little Thai children. What he contacted us over, he was looking for support to use a surrogate to have a child with.
Now it all makes perfect sense, this child abuser is going to use a surrogate to father children to use abuse and most likely sell.
July 25, 2015 @ 8:16 pm
This guy contacted our twitter page out of the blue last night, dont know the guy never conversed on social media before. Our sites, websites are about protecting children from child abuse, human-trafficking, sexual abuse, domestic violence, pornography. Last night i had no one clue about this guy who he was not until today, when i get send several tweets from a person, letting me know, then sending me to this article. How this guy loves little Thai children. What he contacted us over, he was looking for support to use a surrogate to have a child with.
Now it all makes perfect sense, this child abuser is going to use a surrogate to father children to use abuse and most likely sell.