They contained daily forecasts of the interest rates charged between banks for lending in Japan's yen currency.
For Crumb and Roy Sebag, the founders of BitGold Inc, whatever the world's politicians and central bankers choose to do about gold and the dollar (or gold and the Euro, or gold and the yen) is interesting, but irrelevant to their own business plans.
The PlayStation launched for 37,000 yen and only 100,000 units were distributed to 4000 stores throughout Japan, selling out instantly.
The jury heard he also asked if O'Leary could pass on a message: "If you see him you say 'If you can set a low yen 3 month Libor you will really help my brother out'".
And it's BitGold's job to make that connection, spinning gold into dollars, rubles, yen, or whatever else its clients want.
Edmonton was once part of the classic urban cycle: a first move for immigrants heading out of inner London with a bit of money and a yen for a garden; a last-but-one move for the white working class, already eyeing up a retirement bungalow in the home counties.
Unlike those who arrived direct from Toronto and Montreal – including actors Donald Sutherland and John Vernon, novelist Mordecai Richler and director Ted Kotcheff – Saltzman had stayed on in Europe after the second world war, and had a yen for the theatre, his true love.
Those clients may like to view their gold as money, but since Starbucks doesn't share that opinion, BitGold will serve as a facilitator, accepting the client's gold deposits and then, when the client wants to make a purchase, turning it into the local currency – a Brazilian real, or Japanese yen, or Russian ruble – at whatever rate the prevailing price of gold on the global market dictates.
The claim was made at the trial of Tom Hayes, 35, a dealer in Japanese yen derivatives at the Swiss bank UBS and then the US firm Citigroup, where the prosecution claim he earned £4.8m over a four-year period after attempting to rig Libor – the London interbank offered rate – on an almost daily basis.
Banks are asked what rate they expect to pay to borrow from each other for periods of time ranging from overnight to 12 months in currencies including sterling, dollars, euros, yen and Swiss francs.
In April 2007, Hayes began emailing and instant messaging his step brother, Peter O'Leary, then employed by HSBC, which was a panel bank for Japanese yen Libor.
