Much longer article: https://www.americanbanker.com/news/arisebank-raises-questio...
FBI and SEC agents stormed AriseBank’s office in the middle of the night where the team had been sleeping after a long night spent coding.
"I got woke up with guns pointed at me," he said. "It was, 'Put your hands up where we can see them.' I didn't know why they were there. They brought us outside, handcuffed us, and put us in a Suburban in the driveway."
Upshot:
If you break the law to disrupt the taxi industry, expect some lawsuits.
But if you break the law to disrupt the financial system, expect to see the business end of the state's monopoly on violence.
That's quite the generous description of this $600 million scam operation that was apparently completely full of shit from day one.
I mean Uber does some shady things, but it's not a scam.
The CNBC and American Banker articles don't read like completely full of shit.
The company's crimes consist of not registering with the SEC, the FDIC or the Texas banking regulator and putting the word "bank" in their name which is against the law if they're not a registered bank. They also lied in press releases.
I wouldn't trust my money with these guys, but I'd say their crimes are roughly equivalent to Uber systematically misleading regulators and law enforcement, ignoring laws in countless cities and countries, criminal bribery, theft of intellectual property, etc.
The point is that firearms didn't get aimed at Uber employees, but when you challenge banks you get night raids, loaded weapons and black Suburbans.
ICO founders all seem to be a mix of greed and hubris.
Seems there is something extra that the founder is forgetting to mention - something that makes him not eligible to found anything bank-related.