IGE was an MMORPG company started in 2001 by Brock Pierce and Marc Collins-Rector. This was all after the Child Abuse scandal of them holding A-List Hollywood elite pedophile parties where they would drug little boys and also rape them by gunpoint. It was the focus of the movie "An Open Secret" Bryan Singer, the X-Men movie director often frequented them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Open_Secret
"The film makes multiple references to director Bryan Singer, who was alleged to be at some of the DEN parties,[5] but does not detail allegations against him. A lawsuit alleging that Singer sexually abused an underage boy was withdrawn during the production of the film. The film details only allegations made by persons willing to appear on camera."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjQvFgkI0R4YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtWXrxcqsrsYouTube
"In August 2000 a New Jersey federal grand jury indicted Collins-Rector on criminal charges that he had transported minors across state lines for the purpose of having sex with them. After his indictment Collins-Rector fled to Spain together with Chad Shackley and Brock Pierce. Interpol arrested them in May 2002 in a villa in the south Spanish beach city of Marbella. Guns, machetes and child pornography were found in the house."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Collins-Rector
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Open_Secret
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brock_Pierce
Brock Pierce founded Bitcoin but when he joined his own board of directors nine resignations followed suit.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/05/some-in-bitcoin-group-resign-over-new-board-members-link-to-sex-abuse/
The website links to the nine Bitcoin Foundation members who walked away and submitted their resignations here.
https://bitcoinfoundation.org/forum/index.php?/topic/951-post-your-bitcoin-foundation-resignations-here/
In the year 2001 Brock Pierce, Marc Collins-Rector and Chad Shackley created the MMORPG company IGE in Spain.
IGE was one of the worlds first cryptocurrencies and came before Bitcoin. They traded real money through video game currency. Basically, Gold and rare items in online video games that usually needed to be unlocked was sold through them. Millions and millions of dollars were moved through fake video game items (think in game money, swords, guns, I.e. fake virtual things) were sold through real cash.
See how that opens a huge front for money laundering? Through video gaming no less. What is the chances ALL the men involved with DEN and Hollywood sexual abuse A-List elite pedo parties would get into a legit gaming company? Especially one where all the currency is moved through a variety of different legitimate online MMORPGs for gamers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IGE
"Like all the other in-game currency traders, the vast majority of IGE's revenue comes from buying/selling World of Warcraft gold. Its website traffic, and allegedly its revenues, have been declining since 2006 due to the increased competition from the in-game currency traders based in China and the constant bombardment of anti-real-money trading measures by Blizzard Entertainment, the publisher of World of Warcraft.[18]"
Look on Brock Pierces wikipedia page under Internet Gaming Entertainment .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brock_Pierce
"In 2001, Pierce founded Internet Gaming Entertainment (IGE), a company which pioneered the MMORPG currency-selling services industry that link virtual economies with the real one. In 2004, CNN Money reported that IGE brought in more than $1 million USD each month.[full citation needed] Between 2004 and 2005, IGE spent more than $25 million buying out seven smaller competitors, including four auction platforms and a number of fan and content sites.[11] In 2005, Pierce estimated that IGE accounted for about 50% of this online market in the U.S., which has about $500 million in annual volume.[11][12]
Pierce founded Internet Gaming Entertainment in 2001 and ZAM in 2003.[13] Pierce has been involved in the establishment of digital currencies and virtual goods.[14] Many of Pierce's companies have operated in this virtual space."
Here's the games IGE was involved in.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IGE
Current
WildStar (video game) (PC)
Elder Scrolls Online (PC)
FIFA 14 (PC, iOS, Console, Mobile)
DC Universe Online (PC)
Diablo 3 (US/EU/Asia)
Final Fantasy XIV
Guild Wars 2 (US/EU)
Rift (US/EU)
RuneScape
Star Wars: The Old Republic (US/EU/AP)
TERA (US/EU)
The Secret World
World of Warcraft (US/EU)
Former
Age of Conan (US)
Aion Online (US/EU)
Everquest II
Final Fantasy XI
Lineage 2
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
IGE still exists. It has now been renamed
"Atlas Technology Group Inc"
During the final months of IGE leading to its reformation, the board of directors decided to sell the company to their former partner Jonathan Yantis.[12] IGE's parent company was then renamed Atlas Technology Group Inc,[13] which is owned by Yantis, while Brock went with Affinity Media.
"In April 2014, IGE announced a formal service agreement with virtual currency provider EpicToon.com, who confirmed they will be handling IGE's virtual currency line of business.[16][17]"
Brock Pierce went on to create Bitcoin afterwords.
I believe there's a chance through the MMORPG virtual currency market that is being bought with real money that there are people able to Traffik children and money launder through legitimate means. It comes out as clean money. MMORPG's have millions of players, and whole markets focused on the buying and selling of virtual in game currency like gold, weapons and armor etc. through real money. Child Trafficking could easily be hidden through it. Just the fact that EVERYONE from DEN being involved is beyond suspicious and a year after IGE's creation all three of them got arrested in the same city they created the company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Collins-Rector
"IGE initially used an address in the city of Marbella, Spain, where Collins-Rector and Pierce shared a villa until it was raided by Interpol in 2002.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Collins-Rector (under later career)
Interpol arrested them in May 2002 in a villa in the south Spanish beach city of Marbella. Guns, machetes and child pornography were found in the house. (under Child enticement conviction)
Steve Bannon had also joined the company in 2005.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/steve-bannon-once-guided-a-global-firm-that-made-millions-helping-gamers-cheat/2017/08/04/ef7ae442-76c8-11e7-803f-a6c989606ac7_story.html?utm_term=.ef0ae891c0b6
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Vic_V ago
Yeah, there is definitely an avenue for money laundering through online gaming. I remember playing black desert online. For weeks someone had listed "bd9" a berserker class costume on the in-game market. Each was like $15 cash shop item. So they would likely sell the in-game currency, or had a deal with the devs for a cut or something in order to get some money back. (They'd rather have $7.50 look "clean") They listed thousands of these over a few months. I highly doubt it was a 'whale' trying to pay-2-win.
With other games im sure any way to convert dirty $ -> in-game items or currency -> clean looking $ will get taken advantage of. And it would be a lot easier if you were the devs.
Eve prob had it too. Remember vilerat got a job due to his goon connections and then got killed in bhengazi. hmmmm
gamepwn ago
I know what you mean. I played a few MMORPG's over time. Those vendors, those economies have millions of people participating in them. You can see them fluctuate all the time. All you would have to do it take an expansive in game armor/weapon/item whatever, make replicas of it, and keep selling it into a virtual economy. You can make millions selling thousands of items. Developers for sure get in on this profit practice. Hell for Steve Bannon and all these figures getting involved you can make alot of money off of virtual economies. Now think of a game like you said Eve Online or even Starship Citizen coming out. People spend thousands of dollars of real money buying virtual spaceships. Money can be transferred to look clean.
Vic_V ago
Unless you mean duping insanely rare items, i think you have a limited understanding of how little the ingame currency itself is worth and how much play time would be required to make money through crafting / arbitrage in the markets.
The way many of them used to operate were bots who would farm. But that still is nothing compared to stealing some credit cards, buying cash shop items, selling cash shop items, then selling the ingame currency for real cash.