Butterfly Labs Inc . has spoken out to Bitcoin Magazine for the first time since reaching a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and denies using customers’ Bitcoin mining machines for their own profit.
As a Bitcoin mining company, the last 18 months haven’t been easy for Butterfly Labs. Until recently, the company had remained silent over allegations that it had kept upfront payments from customers’ even when it failed to deliver the hardware and that it had been using customers’ Bitcoin mining machines before shipping them.
Now, though, after signing a court order on February 25, Butterfly Labs says it wants to set the record straight as it begins the long journey of getting the company back up and running.
“Before the FTC came in we were a serious business [with] a very clear picture of where the business was going,” Jeff Ownby, Butterfly Labs vice president of e-commerce and marketing told Bitcoin Magazine . “We had a clear understanding of where the refunds were and the refund liability, [and] we had a clear understanding of the shipping liability that we had, [which] we were tracking very meticulously throughout.”
It had previously been reported by Bitcoin Magazine that Butterfly Labs had reached an out-of-court settlement with the FTC amounting to $38.6 million.
That figure was incorrect, as the orders contain partially suspended monetary judgements.
Against Butterfly Labs and co-founder Sonny Vleisides, there is a suspended judgment of $38,615,161. The judgement that Butterfly Labs has agreed to pay is $15,000 and Vleisides $4,000. The suspended judgement only becomes operative if the judgement figures placed against them are not paid. It was alleged that Darla Drake, Butterfly Labs general manager, used machines from the company to mine bitcoins, which caused her to receive a judgement of $135,878. This, however, would be suspended once she surrendered the […]
