E-gold is in big troubles. As you can verify here:
https://www.e-gold.com/newacct/
new account creation was temporarily suspended.
What is the reason? What is the future for e-gold?
The reason is that e-gold owners pleads guilty to money laundering and illegal money transmitting charges. What is the future? In Dr. Douglas Jackson opinion, e-gold will move to fully comply with all applicable federal and state laws relating to operating as a licensed money transmitting business and the prevention of money laundering which includes registering as money service businesses.
Read more about a “new beginnig”:
A New Beginning
November 2008 will mark the 12th anniversary of e-gold’s debut as an alternative global payment system enabling Users - individuals or businesses - to receive payment in gold at extremely low cost and without risk of the sort of payment reversals that characterize all credit based systems.
e-gold has been a pioneer in numerous areas and I am proud of its innovative accomplishments. Since 1996, the Internet has witnessed multiple online payment initiatives, several of them funded with $20-90 million of start-up capital, with distinguished founders and executive cadre, high profile brand name strategic allies, and favorable reception in the business press. But whereas Digicash, Cybercash, Beenz, Flooz, Peppercoin and a host of others each was promoted as the next big thing, all of them combined cumulatively [in their original incarnations - some have been restructured into other business models] executed less transaction volume than e-gold did in a typical single quarter.
But this note is not about success. It is about e-gold’s failure to date to emerge, its failure to transition from a marginal player for early adopters to a respected institution integrated into the global financial mainstream. I am talking about a vision that has not yet been realized… and a determination to fix what needs to be improved.
e-gold’s failure to emerge so far is a result of many factors but the root causes were design flaws in the account creation and provisioning logic that led to the unfortunate consequence of vulnerability to criminal abuse. Criminal abuse of the e-gold system, in turn, led to a self-reinforcing negative reputation.
Ultimately, criminal abuse of e-gold reached the point where the US Department of Justice intervened, bringing criminal charges against e-gold Ltd., Gold & Silver Reserve., Inc., (the Operator of e-gold and also of the online exchange service OmniPay), myself, and the other directors for violations of 18 USC 1960 [Operation of an unlicensed Money Transmitting Business] and 18 USC 1956 [Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering]. The criminal case has been resolved. The resolution of the criminal case however provides for a second chance, an opportunity to address the flaws embedded in the e-gold system and to transform the “e-gold Operation” into the institutions I, the other directors, and our longsuffering employees and contractors have always envisioned, one that serves to advance the material welfare of mankind.
In harmony with this transformation, we acknowledge that e-gold is indeed a Financial Institution or Agency as defined in US law and should be regulated as a Financial Institution. E-gold Ltd. has submitted an application to FinCEN to be registered as a Money Services Business and will be seeking licensure in all states that require it. Most importantly, working in conjunction with US government agencies, we will be exerting every effort to bring e-gold into compliance with US law and regulation as quickly as possible.
