"Black Swan" author Nassim Nicholas Taleb has alleged that Monero (CRYPTO: XRP) founder Riccardo Spagni was an Interpol mole.
What Happened: Taleb said on Twitter that when he argued that everything in Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was traceable, he was told that Monero could be anonymized.
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When I argued that everything in bitcoin was traceable (and triangularizable), I was told that Monero could be anonymized.
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) March 21, 2023
Turns out the founder/lead maintainer was a mole for Interpol.
h/t @ParrotCapital https://t.co/WLO2Xqlz4H pic.twitter.com/Aoodk2YtiG
“Turns out the founder/lead maintainer was a mole for Interpol,” he tweeted.
The author was responding to Twitter user James Edwards’ alarming claims regarding Spagni. Edwards said that reports have suggested that Spagni had outed himself as an informant for Interpol after he was detained by U.S. Marshals pending extradition. “Evidence strongly suggests he helped them track Monero.”
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In response to the allegations, Spagni said “If you want to track Monero then I recommend viewing the Breaking Monero series that the Monero community & researchers published.”
He even took a jab at Edwards by calling him "brain dead" for suggesting that he was an Interpol mole. He tweeted, "This nonsense post is unsurprising, coming from a known scammer," Spagni tweeted.
Imagine being so brain dead that you post this. If you want to track Monero then I recommend viewing the Breaking Monero series that the Monero community & researchers published:https://t.co/NxDR7DrB8W
— Ric “el pony esponjoso” (@fluffypony) March 21, 2023
This nonsense post is unsurprising, coming from a known scammer�� https://t.co/8Cj36RzwqA
Spagni was arrested and extradited to South Africa on July 20, 2021, where he is facing fraud charges. The accusations allege that Spagni stole a reported $100,000 from his former employer, Cape Cookies, by creating fictitious invoices and diverting payments to his own accounts between the years of 2009-2011.
Price Action: At the time of writing, Monero was trading at $153, up 0.55% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro.
Photo by Monero Community Workgroup on Wikimedia Commons
