SECURITY: Bitcoin mining hardware exec falls for sophisticated crypto scam

Sunday, November 30, 2025

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2025/11/bonkers-bitcoin-heist-5-star-hotels-cash-filled-envelopes-vanishing-funds/

Bitcoin mining hardware exec falls for sophisticated crypto scam to tune of $200k
Joel Khalili – Nov 18, 2025 1:37 PM 

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As Kent Halliburton stood in a bathroom at the Rosewood Hotel in central Amsterdam, thousands of miles from home, running his fingers through an envelope filled with 10,000 euros in crisp banknotes, he started to wonder what he had gotten himself into.

Halliburton is the cofounder and CEO of Sazmining, a company that operates bitcoin mining hardware on behalf of clients—a model known as “mining-as-a-service.” Halliburton is based in Peru, but Sazmining runs mining hardware out of third-party data centers across Norway, Paraguay, Ethiopia, and the United States.

As Halliburton tells it, he had flown to Amsterdam the previous day, August 5, to meet Even and Maxim, two representatives of a wealthy Monaco-based family. The family office had offered to purchase hundreds of bitcoin mining rigs from Sazmining—around $4 million worth—which the company would install at a facility currently under construction in Ethiopia. Before finalizing the deal, the family office had asked to meet Halliburton in person.

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Sorry, but NO ONE gets cash filled envelopes in an honest transaction.

That should have been the first clue to a scam.

Then to “prove a capability or a holding” of bitcoin transfer some to a strange wallet?

Just reading the story, my ex-CISO “spydee senses” were on high alert.

And inputing a key “seed phrase” into an unknown software wallet you just downloaded was just the height of stupidity.

Sorry to pile on and beat a “dead horse”, but the warning signs were there.

Who knew if “wealthy Monaco-based family office” was even a real entity.  Or if they even knew what was going on in their name.

Argh!

“You can’t cheat an honest man.” — W. C. Fields

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PEACE: Using a nuclear bomb should be unthinkable; Hibakusha’s peace prize should remind us of that

Saturday, October 19, 2024

https://nypost.com/2024/10/11/world-news/japans-nihon-hidankyo-wins-2024-nobel-peace-prize/?lctg=6080ba40747925275a09dcd3

Japanese atomic bomb survivor group Nihon Hidankyo wins 2024 Nobel Peace Prize
By Reuters 
Published Oct. 11, 2024, 5:15 a.m. ET

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Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, in a warning to countries who have nuclear weapons not to use them.

Witnesses to the only two nuclear bombs ever to be used in conflict, members of the group, also known as Hibakusha, have dedicated their lives to the struggle for a nuclear-free world.

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Using a nuclear bomb should be unthinkable.  But when in a war and you’re losing, suddenly the unthinkable becomes very thinkable.

The USA Gooferment should IMMEDIATELY tell Ukraine and Israel that they will no longer supply money and weapons for their wars.  

Russia, who much to my surprise, seems to be the “adult in the room” and has offered to negotiate peace.

Israel and the Arab world must come to the peace table.  And. Since the Gooferment loves twisting arms so much, let that become their number 1 priority.

Finally, NATO, which has long outlived its intended purpose, should shut down and give everyone a “peace dividend”.  

Dona Nobis Pacem

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INTERESTING: Svingerudsteinen rune pushes known history backby hundreds of years

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/sensational-runestone-discovered-in-norway-with-mysterious-inscription-may-be-worlds-oldest/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_medium=weekly_mailout&utm_source=02-02-2023

‘Sensational’ Runestone Discovered in Norway With Mysterious Inscription–May Be World’s Oldest
By Andy Corbley – Jan 31, 2023 

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A runestone was discovered in Norway recently that jumps back the origin date of runic writing by hundreds of years to a time before the fall of Rome.

Based on carbon-dated organic remains, the reddish-brown sandstone block may have been carved as far back as 250 to 1 CE—making it the oldest ever found.

Most runestones are named based on the location they were discovered, and this one is called the “Svingerudsteinen,” or “the Svingerud Stone.”

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Runologists like Zilmer don’t have a large body of reference, as only 30 or so stones have been found with inscriptions dating from the 6th century or earlier.

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Amazing about how little we know about human history.  Here’s some messages from the past (obits) that are cryptic bits.

What all did these people know that is lost in “history”.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Home schooling leads to “state-napping”

Monday, December 7, 2015

http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/norway-seizes-kids-over-familys-christian-indoctrination/?cat_orig=world

WND EXCLUSIVE
KIDS SEIZED OVER FAMILY’S ‘CHRISTIAN INDOCTRINATION’
Social media campaign to reunite parents, children surges worldwide
BOB UNRUH

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The conflict arises on the heels of a decision by the Supreme Court in neighboring Sweden not to allow parents Christer and Annie Johansson even to see their son, now 14.

He was “state-napped” from the family when he was 7 because he was being homeschooled.

Word of the court decision comes from the Home School Legal Defense Association, which has been working with other groups, including the Alliance Defending Freedom and lawyer Ruby Harrold-Claesson of the Nordic Committee on Human Rights on the case involving Domenic Johansson.

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Just outrageous.

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