$169 million in credit card fraud.

I raise you with the biggest crypto exchange ponzi (so far) being run by the son of two Stanford lawyers and law teachers (dad teaching tax laws and mom teaching ethics, while having none). Well connected people to the US political elite, donating tens of millions to US political candidates.

All the while having one of the most respected publication in the US (maybe not so much respected anymore now) actively participating in the scheme.

For Wirecard, Russia had a vested interest in influencing payment policies and happenings in the EU to help them with sanctions (probably at both a national level to keep trade moving, and at a personal level given that Russia's political elite bore the brunt of early sanctions). They were probably proactively engaging with him extensively from high levels.

Seleznev was just a big fish in the general area of "russian fraud and cybercrime abroad." I doubt the state had a personal interest in him like it did with Marsalek. Russia just generally has a policy of allowing Russian nationals to commit cybercrime abroad (as long as it doesn't affect them domestically) probably because it brings in foreign currency, keeps people employed and encourages development of those kinds of skills, and keeps hackers busy so they don't commit domestic cybercrime or do bad things to the government.

That said, Seleznev is directly cited as a factor from Russian media in the arrest of some FSB bigwigs per https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kevincollier/report-arr.... To me, if he were personally benefitting from direct help from the FSB like Marsalek this would not be retroactive to begin with, and that it took like 3y to accuse an FSB agent of helping the CIA with him (after the same agent got caught helping catch other hackers) also suggests this was less of a strategic priority and more of a "getting our hackers arrested is bad for business" thing.

I hope to do whatever part I can to contribute to Estonia’s success.

…not with a crypto startup, though.

But I feel you're not extending your own question far enough to answer it for yourself. Why do in Finland what is cheaper to do in Cyprus? Why do in Cyprus what is cheaper to do in Laos? Etc, etc. The answer is usually not "The economy is wrong and I am right".

Logistics-wise, it is true that we are farther away from places, but it's also true the price of logistics has fallen over the past 100 years by several orders of magnitude -- and that we have a giant sea on our western flank which makes it even cheaper to move huge amounts of freight. I don't think you can look at the sophistication of modern logistical operations and deem that that is going to be the dealkiller for people. Doubly so when you consider the rising tide of self-driving technologies of all kind -- triply so when you consider Finland is one of the few states in Europe still actively investing in nuclear power. A self guided, nuclear powered cargo fleet is the kind of thing I dream about at night.

But again - that wouldn't be specific to Finland, that would be a boon to any state with a coastline. So I just don't really see it as all that relevant from a comparative advantage viewpoint. There has to be more to the story than the raw logistics of it, much like there has to be more to the story of Python being more popular than x86 these days even though x86 is closer to the metal.

Wasn't there some trade policy wierdness back in the 90s that made Finland (on paper) one of the world's top banana exporters or something? A short search didn't come up with anything, so I can't tell if I only imagined that back then.

As a founder, I am much happier in Estonia. Life is much simpler when you don’t have to jump through twenty hoops because of some stupid political decision for every action you take as a small business. While I can’t speak for all of the Baltics, Estonia truly has a lot of potential in that regard. Hell, the „IRS“ here has a support chat! Unthinkable in Germany.

Sure, a lot of things need work and are still developing, especially in rural areas, and of course no country comes without issues, but Tallinn isn’t far off German cities in many areas. In some, it’s even outright better. Free public transport anyone? Being able to pay by card everywhere? Self-checkout in supermarkets? Not a thing in Germany.

Let's look at some data. Estonia ranks extremely high in math, science, and reading tests given to 15 year olds as shown by the international PISA tests. [1] In fact only a handful of Asian countries rank higher. The results are basically the same as the highest ranking state in the US - Massachusetts.

> huge corruption

Estonia ranks #14 in the Corruption Perceptions Index, which is really good. [2] Also, having lived in Estonia most of my life I have never encountered a situation that involves a bribe, whether explicit or implied.

> most young people left for greener pastures

Young people want to see the world. I personally spent years living in other countries, and a lot of my friends as well. However most of us ended up returning in our 30s. Turns out Estonia is pretty great.

--

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_St...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index#2...

The problem is not corruption, the problem is this self-loathing victim mindset. I am also from there and I am sick of it. If you don't like it, go away somewhere where the are no problems and no corruption.

Think of the experiences you described in your comments. They almost always happen when you make/receive money from certain jurisdictions (third-world, not necessarily a money laundering location). The West, in the last few years, has become less competitive. This switched the money flow which was predominantly from third-world to west. Most of the money laundering happened in the Western countries in the past. (think dictators moving their monies to European capitals to buy real-estate).

Now that the flow has flipped in favor of the third-world, the West has decided to "stop" the flow. The lower taxation rate in these countries makes this worse. The exception is the US. They weren't a favored location before but they figured they could pick up where Europe left off. And FATCA made it easier for them.

If entity A can set up hundreds of fake twitch accounts, all of which tip entity B from A's pool of illegal money, then B can claim that it's revenue is entirely above board, it just came from Twitch tips.

Been a while since I've heard this kind of BS. The "design" does not work.

https://go.chainalysis.com/2023-crypto-crime-report-demo.htm...

Most of criminals prefer real estate and cash over cryptocurrencies. London and Dubai are the best.

Here is a documentary on Londongrad

https://youtu.be/GAOJCcwxDug?si=M0Lnso1rjmdckoDH

You can even find a map that shows different parts of London where East European and related criminals have set up their homes

https://twitter.com/moo9000/status/1471369253966290948

1) Non-criminals also lie on the forms. Mainly because it's sometimes their only way to open a bank account (if they are deemed risky by an AML department), even if they have a legal source of income. This renders people who would otherwise not be criminals into criminals. Just recently, I came across a Tweet[0] from someone who will have to face this dilemma sooner or later.

2) It's a loophole for prosecution, as you admit yourself. It's meant to circumvent well established legal principles. For example, in AML cases, the burden of proof is reversed ("guilty until proven innocent"). It's used as a tool to punish people for crimes when the evidence is not sufficient. Is this really something we want?

[0] https://twitter.com/mikeinspace/status/1708719585556344993

Absolute nonsense. There was a time when like half of all Russian mafia lived in London fully in the open, and they only vacated the place when they started being kicked out through visa cancellations, not fraud charges.

This change changes really nothing in the fact that first world country governments don't want to prosecute those guys.

At most, they don't give a fuck, at worst, they are actively conniving.

And it's not that they are hard to prosecute at all. Anybody who can read some Russian can get a completely damning charge sheet with a few minutes googling on most of them, let alone British MI-6 analysts.

The crazy theory that you can somehow increase prosecution chances with "Al Capon charge" makes little sense if criminals whose offences are provable in 5 minutes without that are walking around. like nothing.

There are many accounts in the press of banks employees saying they send hundreds of suspicious activity reports for absolutely clear cut cases without any reaction. And they can't do anything on their own, as their paperwork is completely impeccable from the reporting standpoint.

Thinking rationally, it makes sense that a mafioso who is going to launder few billion $, will ensure that his paperwork looks more full, and accurate than that of a legit company. Few percents of such sums will hire legions of top lawyers to do the reporting.

> Yep. Have you read the headline of this post?

Yes, I did, as well as the post itself, in fact this sort of comment is against the guidelines but since you're a new account maybe you want to give them a read? Link at the bottom of every page.

> Good luck with that. Trust me, we tried.

I've had several dealings with lawyers in Estonia and no reason for a complaint so far. But I didn't get them from some other website, I asked around in Estonia with business contacts there.

> Again, if financial institutions are involved I am not sure you are right. This are is heavy regulated from AML to KYC to whatever.

That doesn't matter.

> Crypto scammers plague Estonia’s e-residency program

Yes, they do. Unfortunately. They also plague Twitter, Facebook, HN at times, the United States and the start-up scene in general. That's nothing to do with Estonia per-se but more a reflection of how easy it is to set up a business somewhere.

> This comes only three months after the crypto-friendly nation became the epicenter of a $220 billion money laundering scandal.

Latvia had a similar issue a few years ago, they US basically pulled the plug on that and since then it's a lot better. But countries with underpowered regulatory entities will always be at risk of these things. But that does not make it 'the businessmodel of the country' any more than that the drug trade is the business model of the Netherlands or the United States. It's a clear reflection of facts of geography, ability to regulate and oversee, ability to police, experience and so on. The Baltics are attractive because (1) they don't have a whole lot of experience fighting this stuff (2) are proximate to some very large sources of illicit funds (3) lack manpower and funds themselves (see your quote about 'how big is their GDP' -> that's not proof this is their business model but an excellent reason why they can't do as much about it as they should).

As far as I'm concerned Estonia (and Latvia and Lithuania) can pull the plug on all crypto companies in their respective company registries. And let's not get started about Slovakia, Serbia and Macedonia who all have their own problems to work through.