More tales from the crypt,I mean bank vaults, of the financial military industrial complex.....
Entrepreneurs: British billionaire Richard Branson with
bitcoin exchange First Meta CEO Autumn Radtke
Head of bitcoin exchange found dead in her flat after 'suicide'
Metro--
A head of a bitcoin exchange has been found dead in an apparent suicide, ... Ms Radtke, was recruited in 2012 by Singapore-based investor ...
Cops probing 'unnatural' death of Singapore Bitcoin exchange boss
Register-
Police in Singapore are investigating the "unnatural" death of of a virtual currency exchange boss. Autumn Radtke, 28, was found dead in an ...
.............................
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/03/05/bitcoin_ceo_suicide_not_so_fast_first_meta_s_autumn_radtke_is_dead_but_we.html
by Will Oremus
.....
.............................
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/03/05/bitcoin_ceo_suicide_not_so_fast_first_meta_s_autumn_radtke_is_dead_but_we.html
Did the “Bitcoin CEO” Just Commit Suicide? Not So Fast.
by Will Oremus
The news leapt out at me from my Twitter stream: “Bitcoin CEO Found Dead of Possible Suicide in Singapore.”
The headline is all too easy to believe, and to assimilate into the
story of bitcoin as an experiment gone tragically awry. Last week, the
implosion of leading bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox left investors in the
crypto-currency feeling robbed, disillusioned, and angry. Now, it seemed, one of the people responsible was falling on his or her sword.
Not so fast, please. This story is not nearly as clear-cut as the media are making it seem.
First of all, bitcoin doesn’t have a CEO. It’s a crypto-currency, not a company. The young woman in question was actually the head of the Singapore-based startup First Meta.
According to its website, First Meta was founded in 2007, and its claim
to fame was creating the first virtual credit card for the then-popular
online game Second Life. Today it functions as one of many online
marketplaces for bitcoin and a slew of other virtual currencies.
It is true that the young woman, 28-year-old Autumn Radtke, is dead.
But officials are still investigating the cause of death. As far as I
can tell, the “suicide” headlines on sites such as the New York Post, the Daily Mail, and Fox News are
based on anonymously sourced reports in “local media.” The only such
report I’ve been able to track down so far was on the blog Tech in Asia on Feb. 27, which said “sources have suggested that [Radtke] committed suicide.” A note at the top of that blog post indicates that it has been updated to emphasize that “investigations are ongoing.”
It’s possible Radtke committed suicide, but it seems rash—and unfair
to her and her family and friends—for major news outlets to jump to that
conclusion on the basis of anonymous rumors. And even if she did commit suicide, how do we know it had anything to do with bitcoin’s troubles? We don’t. And for the record, suicide is rarely the result of any single cause.
What we do know is that an apparently bright and much-loved
young woman in the Singapore startup community is dead, and police are
investigating. But that doesn’t make for sensational tweets or
compelling headlines in national news outlets or online magazines like BuzzFeed. To get people to click on the story, you need to imply that Radtke killed herself because of the Bitcoin crash.
How do I know that? Because the Wall Street Journal ran a blog post a week ago that stuck to the facts—and almost no one noticed. The post by Newley Purnell, headlined “American CEO of Singapore Startup First Meta Dies,” fell like a tree in a forest with no one around. It was only when the New York Post, the Daily Mail, and others cast their scruples aside and ran with the suicide link that the story captured global attention.
Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University......
Venture-Capital Investments in Tech Outstrip Many Asian Neighbors ...
entrepnr.com/venture-capital-investments-in-tech-outstrip-many-asian-ne...
Feb 28, 2014 - Bitcoin CEO Dead — 28-Year-Old Autumn Radtke Dies In Suspected Suicide ... Venture-capital tech investments in Singapore last year outstripped ... Douglas Abrams, who spent 14 years at JPMorgan in New York and has ... Mr. Abrams, now chief executive of technology venture capital firm Expara, noted ...JPMorgan suicide is 3rd mysterious death in weeks
New York Post-
This suicide marks the third mysterious death of a JPMorgan banker in the last three weeks. So far, there is no other known link between any of ...
| Another JPMorgan Chase banker jumps to his death |
| Financial death toll rises to 6, as JP Morgan employee jumps from ... |
| After five banker deaths in January, a sixth: JP Morgan exec jumps ... |
| Banker's death casts new shadow over work conditions In-Depth-Sydney Morning Herald- |
Why So Many JP Morgan Chase Mysterious Banker Deaths?
Top Secret Writers-
Fraud, extortion, money laundering and a rash of mysterious deaths are the usual earmarks of any successful crime family. However, these are ...
Alarming Spate of Suicides, Mysterious Deaths Among Bankers ...
Christian Post-
Li Junjie, a 33-year-old JPMorgan banker, jumped Feb. 18, 2014, 30 stories to his death from the roof of the Charter House building in Hong ...
Start-Up@Singapore | LinkedIn
www.linkedin.com/groups/StartUp-Singapore-98930
May 5, 2008 - Start-Up@Singapore (S@S) is a premier business plan competition in Singapore organized by the ... Bitcoin has been in the news allot lately. ... A sneak peek into the mind of investor Douglas Abrams, Expara IDM Ventures ...
LinkedIn
Event: From Idea to Investment For the IDM industry by Expara Pte Ltd
www.techinasia.com/event-from-idea-to-investment-for-the-idm-industr...
Jul 29, 2007 - Douglas Abrams developed his workshops based on his experience as an entrepreneur ... Associate Professor lecturing on entrepreneurship at the National University of Singapore. ... Why Bitcoin should remain unregulated ...From Idea To Investment 5-Day Workshop For The IDM Industry
www.techinasia.com/from-idea-to-investment-5-day-workshop-for-the-i...
Jun 16, 2009 - Douglas Abrams developed his workshops based on his ... and Spring Singapore in partnership with Expara, designed to bring ... New Bitcoin exchange in the Philippines could set the stage for wider adoption of the currency ...Does Litecoin Work Videos
litecoin.5wanswers.com/does-litecoin-work-videos__8O7TVt8W1g&feat...
6x7970 Bitcoin Litecoin Worldcoin Mining Rig Replaces Household Heater .... copyright 2014 5wanswers.com, All Rights Reserved. ... Autumn Radtke's death in Singapore, ruled 'unnatural'Milwaukee Journal SentinelWhat is clear is that Radtke, 28, ... "She really exceeded all expectations," said Rahul Sonnad, who hired .http://www.jsonline.com/business/autumn-radtkes-death-in-singapore-ruled-unnatural-raises-questions-b99222948z1-250011411.html
Douglas Abrams, who brought Radtke to Singapore to run his virtual-currency exchange, First Meta, called her a "really sparkling, glowing type of person."
Steve Beauregard, a business associate and friend of Radtke in Singapore, said she was "an uber connector" who "just had the ability to understand which people she needed to connect with and why."
Tim Jaskolski, a Milwaukee-area friend of Radtke, said she encouraged him to overcome his doubts about going into business and to open his own auto body shop, which he did.
"She pushed me to get to where I am today," he said. "She pushed everyone."
Becomes First Meta CEO
Radtke spent two and a half years with Geodelic and a year with Internet gaming company Xfire, and caught the attention of Abrams.
A former executive with J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc., Abrams moved to Singapore early in the last decade. He teaches courses related to entrepreneurship at the National University of Singapore and has provided early-stage investment to more than 20 companies.
Like Sonnad, he has a degree from the University of Pennsylvania — an MBA from its highly regarded Wharton School, no less. And like Sonnad, he cared not at all that Radtke lacked that sort of pedigree. In the start-up environment especially, Abrams said, that's no big deal.
"I don't put a lot of stock in that," he said. "I look more at the person and their ability."
Abrams had been introduced to Radtke through a mutual friend, and when he went hunting for a new CEO at First Meta, he contacted her.
"We interviewed several candidates and she came out on top," Abrams said. "...She took the job in January of 2012."
First Meta is a small firm that lets people trade virtual currencies such as those used in online fantasy worlds Second Life and IMVU.
"Autumn did a great job in her two years as CEO of First Meta," Abrams said. "She redesigned the product. ... She worked on several initiatives to take the business in a new direction. She did a lot of great work in streamlining and improving the operations."
Radtke got First Meta ready to trade frequent-flier miles and loyalty points, something that hasn't happened but which holds potential, Abrams said.
"She was like a lot of smart entrepreneurs — she was a little ahead of the curve on that," he said.
Overall, he estimated, First Meta's revenue grew by 50% under her leadership.
First Meta isn't a bitcoin exchange, though it does accept bitcoin as payment for other virtual currencies, Abrams said. Less than 2% of total payments come in bitcoin, he said.
But while the business wasn't making a market in the virtual currency, Radtke appeared to be quite interested in it.
Many of her recent Facebook posts were about bitcoin. She spoke at a bitcoin conference in Singapore. And she was connected enough to virtual currency pioneer Brock Pierce that he helped put together the memorial gathering for her in Venice.
"Autumn was a very active member of the bitcoin community in Singapore," Abrams said.......
Autumn Radtke, 28, grew up in Waukesha County
Wherever she went — California, Asia, board meetings, sales calls — Autumn Radtke took a little bit of home with her.
"She had that quality from Wisconsin, an approachability and a warmth," said Carey Radtke, her aunt. "It's the truth. People who are from the Midwest, who are from Wisconsin, are like that and they don't even know it, and that's what drew people to her."
She didn't have prestigious educational credentials, but she impressed people who did. She believed strongly in personal responsibility and urged friends to do the same.
She grew up in Waukesha County but wasn't about to stay there. By 18, she was gone. A Facebook post shortly after her 27th birthday chronicled some of her travels: "I turned 23 in Los Angeles, 24 in San Francisco, 25 in Bali, 26 in Las Vegas and finally 27 in Singapore!"
Just a few months ago, she was brimming with optimism. "The feeling that I have right now," she told a friend during a Skype conversation she included on her Facebook page, "is that I can go anywhere and do whatever I want."
Then, on Feb. 26, she was dead. Her body was found about 7 a.m. near the foot of a high-rise apartment building in Singapore. Widely reported as an apparent suicide — something that remains unconfirmed — her death became a global story because of her connections to bitcoin, the much-discussed and controversial digital currency.
Whether bitcoin figured in Radtke's death is unknown, as indeed are the circumstances of her death itself. Singapore police have said only that they do not suspect foul play and that the death was "unnatural," a classification that includes accidents as well as suicide.
"She really exceeded all expectations," said Rahul Sonnad, who hired Radtke at age 23 to head up business development for a company called Geodelic Systems that he had launched in Los Angeles. "Autumn had just an ability to connect with people."
For Sonnad, the connection was tight enough that he flew to Milwaukee last week for Radtke's funeral. Others came from Asia and Europe, he said.
"Before that there were gatherings in Boston, Singapore and Venice Beach (Calif.) where lots of people showed up and shared their stories," Sonnad said. "Just because, again, she touched so many people."
Radtke went to elementary school in Mukwonago and high school in Muskego. She didn't leave much of a footprint at Muskego High, judging from the yearbooks — no record of participating in clubs, band, sports or any extracurricular activities. But even as a teenager she had an outsized measure of maturity.
"She was very intellectual at a very young age," said John Kochnowicz, who was two years ahead of Radtke in school.
"I always got a sense that she wasn't going to settle for anything less than great."
Radtke left Muskego High in her senior year. She moved to Texas, where she continued school. But before Radtke finished college, she was drawn to California and the prospect of working at tech-oriented companies.
After a three-month stint in sales with a private-jet travel broker, she interviewed for a position at Geodelic, a mobile commerce firm Sonnad launched to feed information to phone users based on their location.
Sonnad holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Washington. Radtke's LinkedIn profile lists none. But she had a knack for cutting through tech jargon and explaining complicated and often slippery concepts.
"She was just really impressive in terms of abilities to speak and convey ideas," Sonnad said.
And she had the human touch.
Douglas Abrams, who brought Radtke to Singapore to run his virtual-currency exchange, First Meta, called her a "really sparkling, glowing type of person."
Steve Beauregard, a business associate and friend of Radtke in Singapore, said she was "an uber connector" who "just had the ability to understand which people she needed to connect with and why."
Tim Jaskolski, a Milwaukee-area friend of Radtke, said she encouraged him to overcome his doubts about going into business and to open his own auto body shop, which he did.
"She pushed me to get to where I am today," he said. "She pushed everyone."
A former executive with J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc., Abrams moved to Singapore early in the last decade. He teaches courses related to entrepreneurship at the National University of Singapore and has provided early-stage investment to more than 20 companies.
Like Sonnad, he has a degree from the University of Pennsylvania — an MBA from its highly regarded Wharton School, no less. And like Sonnad, he cared not at all that Radtke lacked that sort of pedigree. In the start-up environment especially, Abrams said, that's no big deal.
"I don't put a lot of stock in that," he said. "I look more at the person and their ability."
Abrams had been introduced to Radtke through a mutual friend, and when he went hunting for a new CEO at First Meta, he contacted her.
"We interviewed several candidates and she came out on top," Abrams said. "...She took the job in January of 2012."
First Meta is a small firm that lets people trade virtual currencies such as those used in online fantasy worlds Second Life and IMVU.
"Autumn did a great job in her two years as CEO of First Meta," Abrams said. "She redesigned the product. ... She worked on several initiatives to take the business in a new direction. She did a lot of great work in streamlining and improving the operations."
Radtke got First Meta ready to trade frequent-flier miles and loyalty points, something that hasn't happened but which holds potential, Abrams said.
"She was like a lot of smart entrepreneurs — she was a little ahead of the curve on that," he said.
Overall, he estimated, First Meta's revenue grew by 50% under her leadership.
First Meta isn't a bitcoin exchange, though it does accept bitcoin as payment for other virtual currencies, Abrams said. Less than 2% of total payments come in bitcoin, he said.
But while the business wasn't making a market in the virtual currency, Radtke appeared to be quite interested in it.
Many of her recent Facebook posts were about bitcoin. She spoke at a bitcoin conference in Singapore. And she was connected enough to virtual currency pioneer Brock Pierce that he helped put together the memorial gathering for her in Venice.
"Autumn was a very active member of the bitcoin community in Singapore," Abrams said.
Suddenly, it soared, plunged and rose again — hitting a high of more than $1,100 in early December, then shedding or gaining hundreds of dollars in price within as little as three days.
Then, in early February, the troubles at Mt. Gox began to surface. Once the world's largest bitcoin exchange, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox froze withdrawals in early February, saying a technical problem had allowed fraudsters to invade with fake withdrawal requests.
Three weeks later, Mt. Gox suddenly shut down. Speculation spread rapidly that it had collapsed, which in fact it had. Within days, Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy, and its founder said a weakness in the exchange's systems was behind the loss of 750,000 bitcoins from users — more than $400 million worth.
Mt. Gox shut down on Feb. 25, one day before Radtke's death.
Beauregard, who together with Pierce founded GoCoin, a payment service that lets merchants accept bitcoin and Litecoin, another virtual currency, at checkout, said Radtke's death had nothing to do with bitcoin.
He criticized "the BS stories that are floating around," and said that trying to connect her death and bitcoin "is just absurd."
Beauregard saw a lot of Radtke in her last months. First Meta used GoCoin's service, and Radtke was an adviser to Beauregard's company. And, beginning in December, Beauregard rented space from Radtke in the three-story shophouse where she lived and where First Meta had its offices.
Radtke's shophouse — a style of building originally constructed to include both living and business quarters — was in a historic area a couple blocks from the apartment tower where her body was found.
Beauregard said Radtke felt First Meta hadn't taken off the way she expected and that "it wasn't, professionally, where she wanted to be at this stage. She was definitely looking to transition to something else."
Also saying that Radtke had been stressed about First Meta not growing as rapidly as she wanted was Wayne Soh. Soh is business development manager at Plug and Play Singapore, a technology incubator that has invested in First Meta.
One of Radtke's last entries on Facebook, posted on Feb. 10, was linked to an article on depression and anxiety among entrepreneurs.
Beauregard said Radtke talked with him about entrepreneurial stress and about personal issues — which he wouldn't describe.
"We talked about things that were troubling her, for sure, but among them was not the price of bitcoin," he said. "And it wasn't Mt. Gox."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
"She had that quality from Wisconsin, an approachability and a warmth," said Carey Radtke, her aunt. "It's the truth. People who are from the Midwest, who are from Wisconsin, are like that and they don't even know it, and that's what drew people to her."
She didn't have prestigious educational credentials, but she impressed people who did. She believed strongly in personal responsibility and urged friends to do the same.
She grew up in Waukesha County but wasn't about to stay there. By 18, she was gone. A Facebook post shortly after her 27th birthday chronicled some of her travels: "I turned 23 in Los Angeles, 24 in San Francisco, 25 in Bali, 26 in Las Vegas and finally 27 in Singapore!"
Just a few months ago, she was brimming with optimism. "The feeling that I have right now," she told a friend during a Skype conversation she included on her Facebook page, "is that I can go anywhere and do whatever I want."
Then, on Feb. 26, she was dead. Her body was found about 7 a.m. near the foot of a high-rise apartment building in Singapore. Widely reported as an apparent suicide — something that remains unconfirmed — her death became a global story because of her connections to bitcoin, the much-discussed and controversial digital currency.
Whether bitcoin figured in Radtke's death is unknown, as indeed are the circumstances of her death itself. Singapore police have said only that they do not suspect foul play and that the death was "unnatural," a classification that includes accidents as well as suicide.
'Exceeded expectations'
What is clear is that Radtke, 28, had built a successful career working for early-stage tech firms and was establishing expertise in the rapidly evolving world of virtual currencies."She really exceeded all expectations," said Rahul Sonnad, who hired Radtke at age 23 to head up business development for a company called Geodelic Systems that he had launched in Los Angeles. "Autumn had just an ability to connect with people."
For Sonnad, the connection was tight enough that he flew to Milwaukee last week for Radtke's funeral. Others came from Asia and Europe, he said.
"Before that there were gatherings in Boston, Singapore and Venice Beach (Calif.) where lots of people showed up and shared their stories," Sonnad said. "Just because, again, she touched so many people."
Radtke went to elementary school in Mukwonago and high school in Muskego. She didn't leave much of a footprint at Muskego High, judging from the yearbooks — no record of participating in clubs, band, sports or any extracurricular activities. But even as a teenager she had an outsized measure of maturity.
"She was very intellectual at a very young age," said John Kochnowicz, who was two years ahead of Radtke in school.
"I always got a sense that she wasn't going to settle for anything less than great."
Radtke left Muskego High in her senior year. She moved to Texas, where she continued school. But before Radtke finished college, she was drawn to California and the prospect of working at tech-oriented companies.
After a three-month stint in sales with a private-jet travel broker, she interviewed for a position at Geodelic, a mobile commerce firm Sonnad launched to feed information to phone users based on their location.
Sonnad holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Washington. Radtke's LinkedIn profile lists none. But she had a knack for cutting through tech jargon and explaining complicated and often slippery concepts.
"She was just really impressive in terms of abilities to speak and convey ideas," Sonnad said.
And she had the human touch.
Douglas Abrams, who brought Radtke to Singapore to run his virtual-currency exchange, First Meta, called her a "really sparkling, glowing type of person."
Steve Beauregard, a business associate and friend of Radtke in Singapore, said she was "an uber connector" who "just had the ability to understand which people she needed to connect with and why."
Tim Jaskolski, a Milwaukee-area friend of Radtke, said she encouraged him to overcome his doubts about going into business and to open his own auto body shop, which he did.
"She pushed me to get to where I am today," he said. "She pushed everyone."
Becomes First Meta CEO
Radtke spent two and a half years with Geodelic and a year with Internet gaming company Xfire, and caught the attention of Abrams.A former executive with J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc., Abrams moved to Singapore early in the last decade. He teaches courses related to entrepreneurship at the National University of Singapore and has provided early-stage investment to more than 20 companies.
Like Sonnad, he has a degree from the University of Pennsylvania — an MBA from its highly regarded Wharton School, no less. And like Sonnad, he cared not at all that Radtke lacked that sort of pedigree. In the start-up environment especially, Abrams said, that's no big deal.
"I don't put a lot of stock in that," he said. "I look more at the person and their ability."
Abrams had been introduced to Radtke through a mutual friend, and when he went hunting for a new CEO at First Meta, he contacted her.
"We interviewed several candidates and she came out on top," Abrams said. "...She took the job in January of 2012."
First Meta is a small firm that lets people trade virtual currencies such as those used in online fantasy worlds Second Life and IMVU.
"Autumn did a great job in her two years as CEO of First Meta," Abrams said. "She redesigned the product. ... She worked on several initiatives to take the business in a new direction. She did a lot of great work in streamlining and improving the operations."
Radtke got First Meta ready to trade frequent-flier miles and loyalty points, something that hasn't happened but which holds potential, Abrams said.
"She was like a lot of smart entrepreneurs — she was a little ahead of the curve on that," he said.
Overall, he estimated, First Meta's revenue grew by 50% under her leadership.
First Meta isn't a bitcoin exchange, though it does accept bitcoin as payment for other virtual currencies, Abrams said. Less than 2% of total payments come in bitcoin, he said.
But while the business wasn't making a market in the virtual currency, Radtke appeared to be quite interested in it.
Many of her recent Facebook posts were about bitcoin. She spoke at a bitcoin conference in Singapore. And she was connected enough to virtual currency pioneer Brock Pierce that he helped put together the memorial gathering for her in Venice.
"Autumn was a very active member of the bitcoin community in Singapore," Abrams said.
Mt. Gox troubles
Bitcoin's volatility has been volcanic. In January 2013, one unit of the virtual currency cost $14. Three months later, it topped $200, promptly dropped below $75, and generally hovered around $100 to $125 until early October.Suddenly, it soared, plunged and rose again — hitting a high of more than $1,100 in early December, then shedding or gaining hundreds of dollars in price within as little as three days.
Then, in early February, the troubles at Mt. Gox began to surface. Once the world's largest bitcoin exchange, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox froze withdrawals in early February, saying a technical problem had allowed fraudsters to invade with fake withdrawal requests.
Three weeks later, Mt. Gox suddenly shut down. Speculation spread rapidly that it had collapsed, which in fact it had. Within days, Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy, and its founder said a weakness in the exchange's systems was behind the loss of 750,000 bitcoins from users — more than $400 million worth.
Mt. Gox shut down on Feb. 25, one day before Radtke's death.
Beauregard, who together with Pierce founded GoCoin, a payment service that lets merchants accept bitcoin and Litecoin, another virtual currency, at checkout, said Radtke's death had nothing to do with bitcoin.
He criticized "the BS stories that are floating around," and said that trying to connect her death and bitcoin "is just absurd."
Beauregard saw a lot of Radtke in her last months. First Meta used GoCoin's service, and Radtke was an adviser to Beauregard's company. And, beginning in December, Beauregard rented space from Radtke in the three-story shophouse where she lived and where First Meta had its offices.
Radtke's shophouse — a style of building originally constructed to include both living and business quarters — was in a historic area a couple blocks from the apartment tower where her body was found.
Beauregard said Radtke felt First Meta hadn't taken off the way she expected and that "it wasn't, professionally, where she wanted to be at this stage. She was definitely looking to transition to something else."
Also saying that Radtke had been stressed about First Meta not growing as rapidly as she wanted was Wayne Soh. Soh is business development manager at Plug and Play Singapore, a technology incubator that has invested in First Meta.
One of Radtke's last entries on Facebook, posted on Feb. 10, was linked to an article on depression and anxiety among entrepreneurs.
Beauregard said Radtke talked with him about entrepreneurial stress and about personal issues — which he wouldn't describe.
"We talked about things that were troubling her, for sure, but among them was not the price of bitcoin," he said. "And it wasn't Mt. Gox."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
I certainly see a connection and aparently the First Meta company is tied to both bitcoin and JP Morgan based on the name of their chairman which is posted all over the place. There is a connection and regardless of whether self appointed spokespeople pop up making intentional disconnections I am glad to see this blog. There are too many coincidences and an unusual method of death. The crooks are gonna slip up and some already have. Please stay on this story. I think these lives are worth the effort. And if the media would restrict the people they allow to make official statements who have no right nor place discussing personal details about people online using each death to get a chance to have their start ups named on TV. This added to why the public got fooled. But thanks to you were aren't fooled any more.
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