In the decision the justices note that qualified immunity was not the matter brought before the court, and it may yet shield the agents in question from personal liability.
If you like books on finance and history, “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator” by Edwin Lefèvre is also an excellent book, and an interesting view into early Wall Street.
It’d be a lot easier to believe if the change didn’t coincide with an incoming administration who has already signaled they’d be looking at anti-competitive practices. Those aligning incentives have an exquisite sense of timing, as it happened exactly as those talked of enforcements started becoming real.
“Xi shows his power by punishing a powerful businessman” is a much better story for him than “Xi limits size of over leveraged company over fears it could wreck economy”
Even if it did, the way we’d find out is a defendant suing the government for their release, and for that case to appeal its way up through the circuits, possibly to the Supreme Court. That appeal process would take years and would probably lose at most of the stages. During this entire time the defendant would be imprisoned.
There’s no reason to think that Bitcoin is more resistant to rubber hose cryptanalysis than other financial instruments. If a US prosecutor can bring evidence showing that you are in control of a stolen asset, cryptography isn’t going to save you from being indicted.
