Live from San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's theCUBE, covering Blockchain Unbound. Brought to you by Blockchain Industries. Okay, welcome back everyone. We're here in Puerto Rico for exclusive CUBE coverage. I'm John Furrier, your host here with Blockchain Unbound. This is a global event from everyone from Silicon Valley, New York, Miami, Russia, Eastern Europe, all over the world, and Puerto Rico coming together to talk about the future of the economy, Blockchain Decentralized Apps and more. Our next guest is CUBE alumni and part of our inaugural crypto currency coverage from Polycon 18, back to give a command performance didn't Ethan, Chief Investment Officer at Arcadia, crypto ventures, great to see you. Good to see you too, John. So you had a great showing on our first crypto event Polycon. Great to see you back in the trenches. You're out, hardworking, pounding the pavement, doing deals, what's your analysis here? I mean, you're here networking, can you check out the sessions? What's your take? We met some really good founders, really good projects. So that's the key thing that we are looking for, you know? The main idea is our tagline says we back Blockchain's best. We are looking for the best founders. We are looking for the teams, then for the idea. Anything that's decentralized, we are backing them. So network effect has been a big part of the competition I've been having. We talk about security tokens and utility tokens. A lot of interesting things going on here, but there's a backdrop. You've got like multiple events going on. You have Blockchain Unbound, run by Blockchain Industries, great team, which put this event together in five weeks. So shout out to those guys. You have Coin Agenda. That's coming. Another event going next door, which is after this event. And then you have a lot of series of little events, meetups, local community had a great crypto, get mixer in Puerto Rico. A lot of action. Too much action, and it's like the same time, look at Tokenfest in San Francisco, another 2,000 people over there. Here people are on the waiting list, so much action. And that's going on this week as well. You have anyone going to that event? I know. I've got a lot of friends who are going over there. For me, it made sense. This is closer. I thought I'll meet at the Puerto Rico is better, I thought, you know? A lot of big money here, a lot of smart money. A lot of smart money, a lot of big money. Global? Global. And the greatest part of Puerto Rico is it's bringing this concept like they have reduced taxes for US people to 0% for individuals for the next, what, to 20, 36. Now that's a big difference. If you want to change your domicile to Puerto Rico, you can, for your business, it's 4% corporate taxes and individual, it's 0%. Now, that's- But you got to move here. You got to move here, okay? But you don't have to give away your US citizenship. Now, I think what's going to happen right now is there going to be other states maybe going to compete for this, or other countries are going to compete for the capital to flow. Where does capital flow to? Capital will flow to cheaper places or lesser taxes. So I got to ask you, I was talking earlier this morning here on theCUBE, I said, there's two killer apps. One of them is money. Money is the killer app. No doubt. Do your reaction to that? It is. Okay, all our lives, let's say for your son or my kid or for me, what my parents, when we went to school, why did they make us go to school or learn, they tell us, okay, you got to go to college. Why? They want us to have a better life. They want us to have a better car. How do you get that? You want money for that. But in none of those years did somebody teach you how does money originate? What is money? Is it something issued by the government? So everything that we go for, unless we are the Buddha or Jesus himself, we do it for money. Well, you bring up a good point. I mean, I have a immigrant background from my family. My wife's family as well. Where did you come from? Well, I'm actually Native American, I'm an American, but two, three generations back. Ireland, French Canadian, a little bit of Armenian in me, but that's okay. All kind of blended in. I'm in the melting pot. I'm not first generation, but in Boston, my parents were from very much an immigrant town and they didn't have any money. So if you look at now, what's gone through the financial.com bubble, which had some impact, but the financial crisis is 2018. If you look at what's happened since then, the generation of millennials, they're in more debt. Okay, they're not realizing college might not be the thing. So we went to school so the beginning of a better life than our parents did.  So blockchain is a path, a freedom, a new way to create wealth, capture the value, but in a new way. Yes, because you have a chance to be a part of an economy without a permission of a centralized organization. So earlier, if you wanted to work somewhere, you needed an organization to work. This is making it much easier to be a part of the economy, to contribute, to help people, to get help. All this is happening and you don't have to go to school. Maybe school is overrated or colleges overrated. It is too expensive. You spend $200,000 in college. What is your ROI? When is your ROI? Maybe some disciplines have it, but this is your chance to- Well, you know that we love media and our disruptive media at theCUBE is to do things differently, but let's talk about some current events that's been happening. So this week, John Oliver created a video trashing cryptocurrency. It was actually funny, but he got to the Brock Pierce part and he really had it out for Brock Pierce. He absolutely destroyed him. And since then, he lost his place in Eos. They wiped away all his DNA as evidence of the company. This is a comedian.  He, what gives him the right to have that kind of influence on someone's job when he's just telling a joke? There's no actually substance of any facts of any kind and what he's doing. So that's a central authority figure that took an editorial comedic routine and put it out there, but people think that's news. See, that's not- The power of media, the power of all the old, traditional media is that they had a bigger reach. I think it's going to change. It is going to be the YouTube's and it's going to become a decentralized YouTube equivalent or decentralized media equivalent. Like a lot of people have made memes and fun videos that go viral and that take things down.   I mean, you got to admit, he's pretty funny. But end of the day. The bit was really good, but he really went after Brock Pierce. Something was going on there. He took them down. See, the traditional industries or traditional media, they want to take down everybody that they don't consider, you know, like a birds of the same feather. They see somebody weird, like Trump. That was taken- Trump was tried, they tried to take down Trump. They will try to take down anything which doesn't fit their globalist elitist agenda. But end of the day, like Brock Pierce sitting on a billion and John Oliver with this comedy, who has the bigger laugh? I don't know if you ask me. I mean, when you have a few money like Brock Pierce does, I'm sure it rolls off his shoulders, but it does impact the ecosystem a bit.  So these comedians and news reporters, they have an obligation to share the data.  You'll get me wrong. But there's a point. Consensus is part of the algorithm now in these blockchain and crypto communities where you have blockchain as a store mechanism, but consensus and transparency is a huge deal. Yes. This is part of the formula. I know, but see, the whole thing, when John Oliver does something, it's not about consensus, he can do it, okay? It's going to change, you know?  It's not going to go anywhere. When it became $1, they were just laughing at it. They came $10, they said it's going to go down. When it became $100, they did the same thing. And it's only after a long time, they will realize, oh my God, it's changed. You know, the rug has been pulled under, you know, it's been pulled under my leg. It's like when Amazon came, all the traditional retail guys said, nobody's going to go and buy a book without touching it. Now you have Toys R Us, that just went bankrupt. There's no more Toys R Us. You know, you have to buy your toys pretty much from Amazon at this point. Well, everything in the model of future will be all contextual. So, you know, videos, comedian, news articles, reports, editorial, all will roll into one thing. That's going to be a great thing. No, and media is going to take a lot of natural language processing. It's going to get a transcript, like I think you are already doing it, right? You're going to take a transcript of what I speak. You're going to attach the words. You're going to attach it to brands. You can sell that, and that is going to be the future. Well, let's get some of that intellectual property out of your head and into the camera and for the audience. What are you hearing in the hallways here? Obviously, there's a great networking event here. Content agendas, phenomenal, as well as, you got it oversold almost by double. There's people in the hallways, it's sold out, so there's a lot of lobby con going on. A lot of, there's a conference within the conference going on. It is. We call it lobby con. What are you hearing in the hallways? What are some of the cool things that's new to you that you're discovering? So a lot of people are now telling me they are very excited about security tokens. They're telling me they're buying security tokens. I asked them, which security tokens? It's not there yet, okay? See, that's where I tend to differ.  Buy as it moves, but security token. My question is, so you're trying to make something that is a utility. Now you're going to make it security. So there is equity markets, there is a CC for that. And you're going to fit this in over there. I'm like, I don't know, what are people trying to achieve? This is a free market and they're trying to bring it into regulation. What's a red flag for you?  Yeah, pretty much. What are people securing? Equity, future cash flows, dividends? What are some of the vehicles you've seen? At that time, they are pretty much securing future cash flows as dividends. They're going to give dividends.  My question at that time is, then why do you want a token? Why can't it be an equity? You can come up with the argument that it's more liquid, but equities are liquid. I don't think it is a liquid, but it is a great way to go around and securitize a lot of things. You can have a small business. Think of it. You and me, we have a small business. Let's say we're a partnership, we have a small business. We have a small business, we have a partnership. It's very hard to exit out of a small business. If we can fractionalize the ownership of our business through tokens, and there might be people who are willing to buy, put $1,000 and maybe I can exit at some point. Otherwise, there's no exit for me. It's very hard to exit out of a small business. Now then, what's the difference between that and equity? I don't know. Those lines are blurred, but I'm happy for the fact that something like that will give liquidity to a lot of small business owners. America is a country of small business owners. Across the globe, it's about small business owners. If it brings liquidity, okay, I'm happy with that, but it's really beating the purpose that we don't want a centralized power controlling us, because now you have Google and Facebook that banned cryptocurrency ads. Why? It means they hold our data. They give us a free access, but they hold a lot of our personal data. I'm thinking the guy who brings in a decentralized search or a decentralized social media, I'm going to invest in them. I don't care if they're a success or if the success will come later. There are going to be multiple libertarian investors like me that's going to invest in them. What I learned was that money is the killer app, and I'll stand by that. I think marketplaces are also the killer app. The other thing I learned at this conference that kind of validates where I was thinking was, the people who nail the business model, that's the critical pacing item.  The technology risk isn't as bad as the business model decision risk. So I'm seeing the successful ICOs or plays have a lock-in on the structural value proposition and being directionally correct. With an understanding of what the hedge is on the technology. So they can manage it. So it's like programmable plumbing. They're recognizing that dynamic. The other thing that I'm learning is that the money flow from other countries is massive. If you want a money launderer from Columbia, it's coming in from Medellin, Narcos. It's coming in from Japan and China. Bitcoin and blockchain is a money transfer opportunity. So I'm seeing a massive amount of money flowing in. Capital is flowing, it's flowing in. Massive waves. And it's good. And even if these projects fail, it's a good thing because you had all this money that was stuck somewhere that flowed in. And as I said, many of those projects are going to fail. Let them fail. Because this money has flowed in, you will have a lot of people come and work on these projects and eventually the correct solution will emerge. And new structural dynamics are at play and new investors are coming in. So many new investors. You know the funny thing, John, after we met at Polycon and over here, I think 99% of the people I meet here are totally new. All the guys we met at Polycon and Bahamas, totally different. I only know very few people that I met over there. So that means a whole set of investors or common people who just want to learn about it, totally new. That's really good. And who wins here? The average citizen entrepreneur, an average citizen player that wants to start something, whether it's a banking, a service provider of some sort, an entrepreneur or a new financial instrument or firm. All have green field opportunity here. Because, see, earlier when you wanted to raise money, I was talking to a founder the other day. I asked him, how hard it was for you to raise your first raise, like 10 years ago. He was telling me that he walked the doors across multiple VCs to kind of scrap in one and a half million dollars. And then he did a second round after eight years. He had to crawl on his knees to get that. And that too, you won't get their attention. You need to know referral. Now you have a chance to go to the world. And money's right. So easy money coming in is a bad thing in a way that most entrepreneurs will fail. The investors will lose their money. But that's different. But at least you have access and you can try the thing that you had in your mind. Earlier, you had no option and they would take a big stake. There's no dilution. This is pretty much crowdfunding on steroids. You have a chance to go to market. You get the go to market money and see if it works. And if it doesn't work, let's fix it after that. Nathan, I got to get your thoughts on building a company because obviously you're also not only an investor, you're also doing strategic advisory work for people building the venture architecture and then the actual build out plans for their venture. Great. So you've talked about this in the past. You have a relationship with some protocol guys. You can check with them and some good network there. But there's also a dynamic with this industry where the business development aspect that was really important, people are partnering. And there's a way to partner and a way not to partner. There's a way to do token economics and there's a way not to do token economics. Very true. What is your advice to companies that have a good thing going on? They have tailwind at their back. They got wind in their sails but have to make some hot partnering decisions. Looking for fellows, fellowship in that ecosystem. How do you advise folks and the partnerships and then talk about token economics after? So the first thing I would tell founders is to reach out. This community is very, very supportive. Like you can reach out to me, you can reach out to other guys, LinkedIn, Facebook or come to these events and in the hallways say your idea and you need help because you will need help. You cannot run this alone.  Have a good team. That's the first thing. Have a great team, great founders, vision, execution, you need that. The next key thing is you have to think about marketing it. How do you market? You need to get some big names on your board who can reach out to their network and tell them about your idea and they will reach out to the rest. So networks are super important. Super, super important. So advisor, their advisor selection should be based on the network that they bring to the table. Right, so the first advisor selection is the guy who will help you flesh out your idea properly as tokens. The next advisor set is a marketing advisor or a technical advisor. The marketing advisor is also very important because you need to market the product, get the money in because end of the day you need money to build it, you need to pay your employees whether it's in Bitcoins or in Fiat. It doesn't matter. One of these is required. All right, so you have these three things then you need to build strategic partnerships in your business. Say, let's say you're a loyalty points guy like Al is doing, you know Al, right? Yeah, Albers you are. From FuseChain now through Digital Bits. From FuseChain Digital Bits. They're a sponsor of our great team. Hot deal. Hot deal, hot deal. Look at what Al did. He went out, he got his strategic partnerships with the loyalty guys. Now he has got the brand, the strategic partnerships. He's built the product already. The money he needs is only for go to market so that he can push it to multiple companies and get them on the chain. Brilliant idea. So strategic partnerships, advisors, founding team and then show the idea to the people. Go out there, let them know that this is what you're doing. Why this idea is great? How big is the market? There is a problem that you're solving. What is your solution? Explain yourself frankly and honestly and I think the community will reward you to go and find a drink. Great point, be honest, ask for help. Again, I can't reiterate my experience that I'll share is during the computer revolution, internet revolution, web.one.0 and now, partnering in the early days when it's forming can make or break a company. Very true. Make or break a company. So note to that. Now, token economics. Sure. Sounds easy, but you really got to make sure that you have a good economic framework that matches the value proposition. Talk about what you advise there. Okay, so last day, one founder reached out to me. ICO is going on, third or seventh day into the ICO, he's raised less than $300,000. I meet him and he needs help. Half, but seven days into the ICO, all I could tell him is shut off your ICO. It's not going to raise money. He's like, why? And I'm like, he said, greatest paper. I'm like, there's nothing in this paper I can put money into. And he's like, why is that? So I asked him, so how many companies has he put his money into? How many coins has he bought? Four years, he's not bought a single coin. And he's structured something by himself. So he's never bought a coin and he's expecting people to buy coins at his price. So I tell people, either you should know this.  So there are different kinds of investors. There are institutional investors, there are funds, family offices, and there are retail investors. If you're not any one of these, or anyone in this group, how do you know what these guys are buying it for? So reach out to them. That's where the advisory comes in. That's where the advisory comes in. Know your customer. Know your customer. Not the KYC in a different way, but know them from a marketing standpoint. Exactly. Know how the retail purchase is made. If you yourself are a buyer, at least you have some idea.  I'll make, you don't have a user. You just have a product. Your tokens are worth strike, if you ask me. It's worth zero. I can tell my house is worth $100 million. It's only worth as much as the top buyer. How much is evening to pay from it? I told, so I told the founder, I'll pay so much for this price because I think if it's about that, there's a huge risk as the main investor coming in. He doesn't agree. Let's talk about how rounds are being done now. So one trend that I'm seeing, not, I shouldn't say trend, a few deals I've seen done, but it seems like a trend. I'm trying to get validation on this. Where people are avoiding the public ICO altogether. They're doing all privates. Basically oversubscribed round. Trend, dynamic, real deal. What's your thoughts on reaction to that? It's just that the founders are adapting. Because if you go to the public, the moment you're going to the public, what's happening is there's the SEC component. Whether it's a utility and they can come after you. So they've made it private. And then they've adapted even further. A lot of the founders that I know, they just stopped accepting money from US entities or US individuals. Well, it's a bad deal for a small investor. See the big investors or the wealthy investors, they all have an external entity where they can invest into it. What about the small investor who was investing $1,000 or $5,000? Now you have pretty much shut out his chance of getting into a great ICO. So the founder is going to raise his money from maybe Korea, Japan, China, and Singapore. He's going to form a company or a foundation in Cayman or Lichtenstein or Gibraltar.  The large institutional investor has no loss in this process. So that is the founder adapting because he does- They don't want to take on lawsuits basically. Compliance, audits, SCC problems, and Princeton problems. So now let's compare and contrast the different kind of companies. US-based company wants to raise money in the US to do accredited, but now they want to go outside, say Asia, or an Asia company wants to raise money in the US. What's that dynamic like? What are the issues? I think what's going to happen is some of them are going to register themselves as a security token. Some of them are going to do just a Reg B for very high net worth individuals. And the public round, they're going to raise it from the China, the Korea, Japan, whoever is allowing them. And that's what I think multiple small countries are going to come into the space which they know now they can get the capital flowing into their company and they're going to allow their rules to be lax. They're going to let capital flow through. And then US will have to change or maybe UK will have to change, whoever is against this will have to change. Capital means money, wealth capital, and resource capital like humans. We tend to move to places that are freer. Why did I move from India to US? Or why did your parents or the earlier generation move to US? They could ask- For a better life. It's a better life. The real better life is you have the freedom over your property, the fruits of your labor. If the fruits of your labor are taxed at 50% or 30%, the more it goes up, you just don't want to work anymore or you're going to search for that place that will tax you less. Like Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. Exactly. Are you bullish on Puerto Rico? I am bullish on Puerto Rico because these, if they can sustain this and have the rule of law, means they can protect people's wealth from crime and all those things, crime or being kidnapped or just, these two things happen. I'm telling you, most people will move or some of the state will have to change that law. They got to get the security up. Nitin, thanks so much for coming on theCUBE. Really appreciate your insight. Thank you very much. Thanks for sharing. Okay, this is theCUBE's exclusive coverage from Puerto Rico where we're getting on the ground here, getting all the data from the blockchain unbound conference, quite a restart week. I'm John Furrier. We're back with more coverage after this break. Thanks for watching.


Amen, so my title, my message today is gonna be called faith activated type your neighbors say activate your faith Amen, and I'm be speaking from the book of March chapter 10 verse 46 and 52 If you guys could pull out your Bibles if you guys want to Read there or we got it there probably up on no on the screen. So Verse 46 and it says then they reached Jericho and as Jesus and his disciples left town a large crowd Followed him a blind beggar named Bartimaeus son of Timaeus who was sitting beside the road When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby He began to shout Jesus son of David have mercy on me And this is an OT version just for you that I'm wondering and verse 48 says and in the crowd said be quiet Many of them yelled at him, but he only shouted louder son of David have mercy on me When Jesus heard him he stopped and said tell him to come here. So they called the blind man said cheer up They said come he is calling you Bartimaeus threw aside his coat Jumped up came to Jesus verse 51 says What do you want me to do for you Jesus asked my rabbi the blind man said I want to see and Jesus said go for your faith Has healed you So I kind of want to emphasize a part. He said he didn't pray for him He said just go your faith has healed you So I believe a lot of us here in this place that we're asking God for a lot of things But the thing that differs this this story from a lot of other stories is when Jesus would pray for them He would lay their hands on him, but this story is a little different because Jesus didn't pray for the blind man All he said he said go your faith has healed you So I believe in this place a lot of us We're coming before God and God and we have everything we need for our miracle inside of us and God is just wants to Activate that faith inside of you for your miracle for your healing for your deliverance and Jesus might name and amen Amen, amen and See in the olden days when you had an infirmity like a like a big or bad like blindness or here deafness or lame In back in those days in the society, they would just really when you had something bad They would just kind of push you aside. They didn't really have a cure for you So what they would do is it would kind of just like give you no tea coffee something like that But they wouldn't really cure your thing You clear your disease or the problem that you had they would only just give you a little something to to deal with it And so that's why a lot of people would always go into their into their places and a lot of even society some Some people would were be would be killed if they knew that they had either leprosy or blindness or something like that And so they would always push him aside and that's honestly how our society is something that we can't deal with We begin to push aside we begin to shove to the back and that's what happened back then in those days And but that's why in the New Testament in the days of Jesus. There was so many miracles There was so many healings there were so many people that that begin to receive sight that be begin to receive their healing It's because miracles occur when humanity runs out of options Miracles occur when you come to the end of yourself and you say God I tried everything that I can but I can't do it God I've come to the end of myself and God says where you end is where I begin where you're at Where you run out your in your your power. That says this is where I start and see Blind Bartimaeus he didn't always want to be Blind Bartimaeus no he didn't in the classroom. He didn't say teacher I want to be a blind beggar when I grow up No, he said probably astronaut or something or whatever they want to be back in the day And so he didn't always go up wanting to be a blind beggar No, I mean blind and being a beggar they don't they don't you you could do one without the other But it was a his situation in life begin to bring down his hopes His situation in life begin to bring down what he can hope for what he could dream for what he can ask God for and begin to limit him and that's what Satan wants to do He wants to take you in this situation that you're at and he wants to begin to limit Even what you ask God for and you say you you've dealt with this issue for so long that you're gonna say God I'm not I'm not even gonna ask God for for healing. I'm not even gonna ask God for a solution This is just I'm beginning to begin to be comfortable in the position that I meant and the thing is how we know He didn't always want to be blind is because in the Bible when they when they most of the time when they give you a name They actually name you that means you got to be some somewhere in life there somewhere higher in life because like you look at the The woman with the issue of blood. What's her name? The woman with the issue of blood She didn't really have a name or the woman at the well her name is the woman at the well because so Being named something Bartimaeus son of Tamaeus that means he was supposed to be somewhere in life He could have been a mayor could have been a governor a ruler or something He was something Something should have been something in life But his situation began to bring down his hopes what he could dream for and God and the thing is What he began to do is he began to become comfortable in the position he is and that's my first point I want to bring to you guys is a curse of comfort seeing Story of Bartimaeus he began to they begin to bring him into the side of the road if you study there They brought him every single day to the side of the road and the thing with blind people is they like to be in a place That is familiar they like to be comfortable in the place because well obviously they can't see so they're blind So they like to know that if I count 15 steps here, I'm in this place I know I'm at I'm comfortable in the position that I'm in and the thing about comfort It's a very dangerous thing church comfort could kill your dreams more than a failure can comfort can kill your dreams More than a mistake can comfort begin to hinder what you can dream for God He said and the thing is God doesn't want you just to be comfortable in the position And God isn't a God of just comfort. He wants to push you to limits He has great things in store for you But the thing with Bartimaeus is he began to be comfortable in the position he was in and Just because you're comfortable in the position and it doesn't mean you like where you're at But a lot of us in life that we were in a position that and we we hate our job We hate our life. We hate Everything that's going in our life But we begin to be comfortable in the position and we begin to accept the fact of where we're at and a Lot of times you begin you be you you become something Not because you wanted it but because of the situation chooses you you didn't choose to become that Blind Bartimaeus didn't choose to become it didn't want to be a beggar, but his situation he made him choose That's what he can do and in your comfort zone Like in the story of blind Bartimaeus When he would be on the side of the road He would every single day he had his coat and he had his cup and what the coat and the cup? Symbolizes is your your safety what you can you have where you could touch and it's what you know And it's what you have everything by you and it says it symbolizes safety So he would be on the side of the road every single day. They're blind and begging But what God wants you to do God wants you to begin to step out of your comfort zone God doesn't want you to be stuck in the position you're in and in the story of blind Bartimaeus when he when he began to Sit there every single day he began to accept the fact He is where is and he begins to accept the notion that The God isn't here that I wouldn't be I wouldn't be here if God exists and in the city A lot of us we have storms in our lives and in the midst of our storms We feel like God isn't here and that's a lie of Satan He puts this notion in our mind that just because we have a problem God isn't there Just because you how you're going through this that you wouldn't be going through bankruptcy if God was with you You wouldn't be having this sickness if God was with you and he begins to put that in your head that just because you have a problem God isn't there Do we have to begin to see sometimes we it's not always demons and and Satan that we're fighting a lot of times We're fighting our own comfort We're fighting our own flesh to stay in our comfort zone and the thing is Satan doesn't want you to come out of your comfort zone Satan doesn't want you to begin to feel uncomfortable because the moment you begin to feel uncomfortable in the situation You're in Satan knows you're about to fight for your freedom Satan knows you're about to start praying for deliverance Satan knows you're about to start believing for our healing So what Satan doesn't want is for you to feel uncomfortable Sometimes he even wants he he will let you come to church as long as you stay comfortable on the position in the situation And you're never asking for prayer You're never asking God for something and you begin to stay comfortable in the position you're in We have to know that this might be our condition, but this is not our position in Christ This might be what we're going through but this is not who we are and we have to begin to believe that just because See us as believers. There's something about falling into a situation That you begin to feel not at he and not as at ease about Because you know who you are when you know who you are That's when you're able to fight it when you know what you're destined for you begin to fight that situation You begin to fight for it because you say yes, I'm going through a divorce, but that is not me Yes, I'm going to bankruptcy, but that is not me. Yes I'm going through a sickness, but that is not me when you know who you are You begin to fight for it Life will only change when you become more committed to your breakthrough Then you are committed to your comfort zone life will only change when you begin to step out of what your your familiar place And like Bartimaeus you're in your comfort zone, but you begin to go to Jesus. That's only when the healing comes That's only when the deliverance the salvation comes the solution comes a man church begin to step out of your comfort zone Just like them just like the lame man in the story in the story of the lame man by the pool He was he was around whole bunch of people that had the same situation and that's exactly what Satan wants Yeah, because when you're around people that going through the same thing as you when you're when you're poor You don't think to be rich when you're sick You don't think to be healthy because all you're around is sickness So Satan doesn't want you to be surrounded by people that push you to believe for the impossible Satan doesn't want you to be to for you to be around people that make you believe for a healing for deliverance That's not what Satan wants, but we have to begin to surround ourselves and believe for the impossible and men church In the in the story. He said he called out to Jesus So they said so he called the blind man cheer up. They said come on.  And so he began to Give up the cup in the coat For the calling and I want to encourage us today that when and you're in your situation that you're in you're in your comfort zone You're shaking that same cup you say you have that same coat around you that symbolizes your issues You're your thing what you what you like have around you to keep you safe And when God is calling you you have to begin to let that I go let that go You have to begin to let go the cup in the calling and run to the calling of Jesus the cup in the cold and begin To run to when Jesus calls you you begin to run to him and leave aside your coat Leave aside your garment because God says I'm gonna begin to give you a new garment a garment of praise a garment of worship a garment of healing And the thing is the crazy thing is just like the story of the lame man When he began to come to Jesus and Jesus said no what's going on and all the lame man did is he began to Give excuses to God he began to say well I was trying to get into the pool so many times But never every single time I tried to get into the pool someone get him before me, but how crazy it is that in the midst of A God such a great magnitude you could only bring him excuses That in the midst you have to be able to know the magnitude of the of the person of whose presence you're in Because when you go there you begin to bring him something different though when you begin to realize the magnitude of our God You know you begin to pray different prayers you begin to believe for the impossible you begin to believe for your dreams for your healing for your deliverance my second point is to begin to fight for your freedom see Bartimaeus When he was he shouted one son of David have mercy on me and everyone told him.  Let just let him go just stop talking. You're always gonna be blind You're always gonna be like this just to shut up and in that moment Blind Bartimaeus had to know how to kind of step back and see is This really what God has in store for me And in that moment blind Bartimaeus had the choice and the thing is you have two choices when Jesus is passing by Because not all the time Jesus is gonna come to you in this story Jesus Didn't come to blind Bartimaeus He was just passing by and when Jesus is passing by you have two choices Do I begin to step out into growth or do I begin to step back into safety? And in that moment blind Bartimaeus begin to shout the more son of David have mercy on me And in that very moment Jesus begin to stand still In that very moment When he shouted one more time because not every time and you guys know that's not every time the first time you pray a prayer It's gonna work But the second time he began to shout one more time it began to stop Jesus in his tracks And how amazing it is To know that we have a cry that we have a worship With us within us that stops the heavens that makes the heavens be Bend their ear towards our situation that makes the heavens know that I hear your cry That begins to when you cry out to begin to stop Jesus in his tracks That we have that kind of a faith To believe for your miracle and the woman with the issue of blood Jesus didn't pray for her Jesus was walking and then in that very moment the blind the woman with the issue of blood She had a choice. Do I stay in my comfort zone? Because unclean people aren't allowed in public places, but she had in that moment a choice Do I do I step into growth? It's gonna be uncomfortable It's not gonna feel good or do I step into safety and she begins to run after Jesus and touch the The dirtiest part of his cloak and in that very moment Jesus stopped and said so and touched me It's because when you begin to there's two different types of cries You know when I when I hurt myself it hurts But then there's a different type of cry when a mother loses her child That cry comes from the innermost That cry becomes you become so desperate for the touch of God that you don't need you don't need a You don't need him to touch you that all you have to do is to begin to come into the presence of Jesus and your face becomes activated and nothing and nothing becomes impossible to our God Every time that you begin to The funny thing is every time you begin to try to believe for you here And every time you try to believe for something people are always gonna begin to try to shut you up and That's how it's always gonna be when you begin to be passionate about something someone that is not passionate about something It offends them so they're gonna begin to shut shut you up They're gonna try to but in that moment you have to believe and you have to know because the moment you accept the Situation you're in you're no longer gonna fight it if you begin to sit and your ashes long enough It's gonna kill you if you sit in your situation long enough It's gonna begin to pull you down so you have to know who you are in Christ in order to fight it so he shouted again and The thing something how he know this was a different shot is because every single day blind Bartimaeus He was in that same situation that same routine and and the funny thing is it's Bartimaeus is a lot of times just like us We we do the same stuff Every single day we're in the same cold shaking that same cup in our lives, and we completely hate it But we began to be comfortable about inside of it And that's what Satan wants, but he began to shout one more time He began to cry out one more time to believe force healing and in that very moment The thing is every single day people put change into his cup people put money into his cup But it was until that one time that Jesus passed by and that was the ultimate change That was the time when Jesus began to give him that freedom that he's cried out for so long for You have to know who you are in Christ in order to fight for your freedom to order in order to know who you are in Christ So it was the same it was the same type of same type of day the same type of issue that he was going going through He was living his regular life, but in this very moment church Jesus began to walk by and In that very moment It wasn't just Jesus that walk by grace begin to walk by hope begin to walk by his grace in his mercy Begin to walk by and when Jesus begins to walk by you have that choice to shout out to God and begin to Begin to stop the foot of Jesus and say God begin to begin to look at my need And the thing is when you begin to worship when you begin to cry out to God God can't step over it God can't step over the worship when you begin to have that radical faith that faith that says I'm so desperate That I don't care about what people think about me. This is between me and God I know God what God has done for me.  I would declare deliverance. I was my mouth I declare financial breakthrough. I declare freedom. I declare healing in the mighty name of Jesus Christ Satan today. We serve you and notice that you no longer in our lives and Jesus mighty name You have to begin to use And see the thing is God won't always God doesn't need what you don't have to create your miracle God only needs what you do have to create your miracle. He said you have your mouth when you cry out I will reach I will reach out my hand to you when you cry out the heavens bend that year towards your situation You have to begin to use what you have and begin to use that faith Inside of you might be small But you begin to use that faith inside of you to believe for the impossible See the story this this thing might not be for everyone, but I believe there's people in this place That are going through things there's people in this place that going through Situations, and I believe like in the in the story of blind Bartimaeus.  God why does it have to be my family? God why does it have to be my fan of finances and he begin to cry out to God every single day and That's the cry that God hears God says your tears have filled up the cup But today is the day that I'm walking by and that took that cup tips over and I'm gonna begin to answer your cry I'm gonna begin to answer your calling what you what you want We have to begin to know who we are and the thing is in the story of blind Bartimaeus Jesus says go your faith has made you well He even he didn't said blind Bartimaeus you can go your faith You're ready healed but in that very moment right after he said that blind Bartimaeus begin to follow Jesus And that is that is the ultimate goal is not for our healing not for deliverance Which is good, but it's to begin to follow the footsteps of Jesus that when he does something to you That you don't just leave it alone But you begin to follow Jesus that you begin to create that relationship with Jesus and when you begin to Have the relationship with Jesus either you don't go back You don't go back to the side of the road when blind Bartimaeus begin to got healed He begin to follow Jesus and never again that he go back to the side of the road see a lot of times We have we've created that system in our lives where we're in that situation 15 steps here, okay? I'm comfortable with the situation. I hate it, but I'm comfortable in it And the moment we try to cry out for breakthrough and something doesn't happen We go straight back to it. We go straight back to the alcohol We go straight back to the drugs We go straight back to the thing that we're comfortable with but we have to in the moment And when we cry out that we don't run back to that stuff that we begin to run back to the To the hands of God that we begin to run back to God and man church I Believe in this place that we that God has something in store for us that God has something Plan for our lives, but we have to begin to fight for it It's a breakthrough, but it's something that we have to begin to fight for Jesus died on the cross for it But Satan doesn't want you to be free Satan doesn't want you to have healing salvation deliverance We have to begin to fight for a church We have to begin to worship we have to begin to cry out to God Then we have to begin to in that very moment that we have to begin to drop to our knees and say the only way God I'm gonna get through this I don't know how but I'm gonna begin to worship you because I've tried it without your grace I tried it without your mercy and I am where I am because of that and God I don't I don't care whether whatever I go through just let me begin to stay in your presence Let me begin to spend another moment in your presence, and that's what he begins to mold you That's it begins to take away your problems So if I ask every single person to rise up on their feet When we're gonna begin to go into worship right now, I want us to begin to cry out to God I want us to begin to worship Christ. I wanted we all have our issues We all have our situations But right now let's begin to worship and cry out to God and say God I'm in the situation and I am but I'm gonna begin to worship you I'm in the situation. I am but God you are I look up to you where my head I look up to the hill where my help comes from and that is you Jesus So I want us every single person if you guys can to begin to lift your your hands in this place Let's begin to worship Christ Let's begin to worship God and begin to give him the glory and the worship that he deserves and Jesus mighty name This afternoon we lift you up in this place We're wishing to you Because you are the way Spirit is in this place right now. We have come to a time of prayer right now We're gonna pray first of all for the mercy and the divine favor of God Almighty to speak for our situation The bible makes us to understand that when his mercy and favor speaks for us That is all we need The mercy spoke for the woman with the issue of blood and she was restored The mercy and the favor of God spoke for Peter and Jesus Christ pick him up From sinking into the sea the mercy and the favor spoke for the crippled man and he was restored Whatever situation that we may be in today We're gonna pray for the mercy and the favor of God Almighty and don't just pray The normal kind of prayer let it come from your heart The kind of prayer they kind of cry that stops Jesus Christ and says what do you want me to do for you? Let us pray right now say Lord Jesus Christ Lord Jesus Christ Let your mercy And your divine favor Speak for my situation In the name of Jesus Lord Jesus Let your mercy And your divine favor Speak for my situation In the name of Jesus Right now begin to open your lips whatever that situation may be it may be a physical condition It may be a mental situation It may be anxiety and depression. It may be nightmare setback hardship and failure It might be financial setback. It may be headache back egg, knee, egg Whatever pain in your body and your spirit or your soul cry out with a cry of fate right now A kind of cry that will stop Jesus Christ to say yes What do you want me to do for you open your lips right now and begin to pray in the name of Jesus In Jesus mighty name all son of david have mercy on my situation We ask you holy spirit whatever situation that we are going for whatever single thing that we're going through god We be into cry out.  It's it's comfortable because we're used to it But it doesn't necessarily mean we like it. We would we wish to have something better And so right now in this place we're gonna make a declaration of faith that i'm leaving what i'm used to I'm leaving the my tradition the things that i'm stuck in the cycle the repeating cycle of things I am going for what jesus has for me. I'm going for my dream. I'm going for my healing I'm going for my breakthrough. I'm getting my fight on i'm not giving up I'm pushing forward in jesus mighty name amen and that's what faith is faith is action and faith is risk I'm gonna go and apply for that job. I'm gonna go and start that business.  I leave my what i'm used to behind I'm taking a step of faith. I'm making a decision that i'm going after jesus I'm gonna cry out until I get my breakthrough.   We step out of our comfort zone right now lord Just like peter did on the sea lord We step out of that boat lord and we keep our focus on you lord and we say it doesn't matter what waves or winds Are around us lord. We step out lord and we wish for you lord. We want new levels in you lord We step out and wish towards our breakthrough lord right now lord towards our promotion lord towards our healing and our deliverance lord Whatever you have in store for us lord. We need to take that first step lord and we step out right now lord You will not leave us nor forsake us. You will be there to guide us and to carry us when it's heavy lord We pray right now lord begin to take us out lord and help us to step out of our comfort zone lord To reach you lord to reach another level name of jesus christ Before we're gonna pray for Give an opportunity of people to give their life to jesus.  Maybe one of your relationship died.   Keep on fighting. Keep on moving forward amen Close your eyes and bow your heads and Right now is a time and moment that if you don't have a relationship with god or you lost it Or you're maybe backslidden is opportunity to give your life to jesus christ life is short Life is not promised anything can happen at any moment and it's important that you know that you know that you know That you have a relationship with god And you will be Internally with him Or maybe you've been coming here first second third time Somebody brought you here and you don't have a relationship with god at all This is the good moment. This is a good time To give your life to jesus. Maybe your heart is beating a bit faster because you know god is calling and he's calling to your heart You will never be satisfied. You will never be fulfilled without him You will not have a purpose and meaning in life without him So if you one of those people Just lift your hands and we will pray with you If you need to give your life to jesus This is the moment this is a time lift your hand and we'll pray for you in jesus mighty name If you're watching us on live right now We're rewatching this broadcast and you need to give your life to jesus comment below And our moderators will reach out to you and we will pray with you and we will introduce you to the greatest person in the world In jesus mighty name and a mighty name of jesus lord. We thank you We honor you thank you for a great gift of salvation We thank you god that you're here today That your mercy and favor is passing by and today somebody is walking out of this place With their healing today's walking out today somebody is walking out of this place with their breakthrough with their promotion With their answer pray in jesus mighty name lift up your hand And say thank you jesus for your mercy Thank you jesus for your favor Thank you that you're passing by today Thank you that you hear my cry today Thank you that today is my day in my moment that my life and my situation is turning around god I thank you god that your ear is not Heavy to hear and your hand is not shortened to answer and today is the day that you will bring Out your salvation your healing and deliverance father I pray for every person that is here in this place That have needs for healing for freedom for breakthrough for jobs for opportunities I pray that you touch them. I pray that you reach out with your hand And speed up the process god I pray that you provide the resources in jesus mighty name whatever that it might be god. I pray that your Healing touch with okay those that need healing in jesus name freedom for those that need freedom We pray against anxiety. We pray against depression.  Come on. Let's put our hands together for jesus christ Thank you for watching this content. I know this was a blessing to you We would like to ask you to subscribe to our channel and click on the bell on our channel So that each time we upload something you can be notified Don't forget to share this content with your friends and family and on social media. We're so thankful to you Better is not good enough. The best is yet to come


Everybody hurricane forest here ripping 2022 elements football hobby six box half-case number one. It's a random team style break Elements in the elements day for you guys. What's up, Sean? Yeah, there's the There's a peek at the results. There's a link in chat. You can always find them on the website. Here we go Again guys, there's 18 to go on six box half-case number three random team style. That's coming up At about 40 minutes here, but as I said if it breaks full we get to it We're gonna go right into it. We're not wasting time today. Yeah. Yeah guys The schedule is more or less a guideline today. We need to get out of here as quick as we can We're just trying to get some release day stuff in before the hurricane comes So we got time to get everything Secured and get everybody out out of the shop and back home safely All right Tungsten Jameson Williams Lions rookie that's a fun offense, man I'm excited for to see him with them 52 of 74. Isn't that your middle name tungsten tungsten? That's what my wedding band is made of there you go Tungsten on tungsten right there. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. It's dangerous. You guys if you clash them together What happened? You know in the first Avengers when? Thor's hammer hits Captain America shield. Yeah. Yeah, so we got to be careful God Merakiam, no, it's it's a mericium guys. I'm Eric. I'm eighty eight of ninety nine Drew Brees Saints Merakium It is red it's blue and red So it is like Captain America shield actually Drew Brees captain America Oh, there he is hackers Romeo Dobbs had a nice game on Sunday There's how many how that doesn't say doobs doobs. I say Dobbs because Sounds weird. It is Dobbs Six of 27 supercharged rookie patch dude his stuff could be going up past man. He's looking pretty good Yeah, he could be their number one guy was our I don't think was art is it And Christian Watson was drafted ahead of him, but doesn't look quite as ready That's nice CD lamb 16 to 25 rookie neon signs Rookie. Yes, it's 2020 card. I did not know that I was gonna be in this. That's a really nice card actually Wow, that's an actual rookie. Yes, it is That took me by surprise that's a rookie CD Lambo 16 to 25 I guess not Cowboys are the nice surprise hit right there Stop everybody and That's pretty. I know it is steel signatures Ravens or Marshall Yanda Legends looks so nice 16 of 27 The camera is not doing injustice because it shines so beautifully. Yeah, there's like a sheen on it It's tough to see it looks more matte on the camera, but like you can see how it glares like that.  Have we just seen two vet base parallels, right? Oh, yeah, that's a nice one actually But yeah, the Lions offense is fun. They're gonna add James and Williams to it. That's pretty cool Mre see I'm Jim Kelly color match there 53 and 95 for Buffalo This is an awesome product. It's a good stuff man jets. I'm odd sauce gardener rookie supercharged patch three colors Jets there you go 38 to 54 appreciate it Matt Raiders are the first rookie neon signs of the current class.  He went to Alabama, right? I feel like every Alabama running back gets drafted no matter what they don't have to do anything they just get drafted and Cardinals steel signatures and Kwan Bolden go Knowles Three of 35 Nice and Kwan Bolden. There you go Cardinals. I keep putting things in the wrong sleeves today Congrats Cardinals on that nice vet hit. I want to see a rookie neon signs now Where they at? I Know Raiders combo. I mean the combo spots are doing well so far. I feel like Cardinals are a combo spot, too All right, big rookie maybe big rookie maybe Jim Kelly again for the bills 38 of 199 Another sauce gardener this time tungsten rookie 15 out of 74 nice sauce That's a double up on the sauce Wendy's would never rookie Jersey, Isaiah Spiller numbered 47 of 75 Wendy's will never give actually Wendy's is pretty good about just like giving you too much sauce honestly You got like a 10-piece nugget. There's like five sauces in there Whoa, look at this Trent McDuffie What is that called? 29 of 199 rookie future signatures. I want to call it FS Yeah, future. Yeah future signatures. There you go chiefs is That's new to this year, right? It's not a metal card. Oh It's a really it's a small it's a small list Yeah, there's only 18 player 19 plays players on it. Huh interesting to 199. That's that's I've never seen That's an elements card though It's a paper on them. Maybe they're trying to delve into that a bit and An RPS rookie steel signatures Vilish Jones Jr. The silver ink just pops right off of that card Pops right off of it. There you go bears Vilish Jones 145 of 199. Those are gonna be cool to collect RPS You go Chicago What do you guys think so far? It's almost like a niche product, but the price point isn't too high and you get you know the autos are on card outside of like a few I mean, we saw the um Obviously the one McDuffie, but like if it's a steel if it's a stainless steel auto. It's on card, which is really cool tungsten Justin Jefferson, Minnesota 26 of 74 Vilish Jones Jr. Bears Amarissium rookie 14 of 95 or a American Here's again Vilish Jones Steelers fusion dual swatch TJ watt 130 or 155 of 199 Also car designs on the hits are really cool to wild card points random to all at the end And RPS rookie steel signatures is breeze hall nice hit jets Yeah, I don't I don't you guys there's just shine on these cards. I don't know if it's the cameras doing it any justice, but These are fantastic. These look better than they have in the past. I Don't know if they're getting better at making these cards. I assume they are nice breeze hall that one is 30 of 79 Breeze I don't know if they're actually made of tungsten. I do not know. Yeah, it's also very strong Debo Samuel numbered 162 of 199 Crystal Lavae Saints rookie Amarissium 4 of 95 a lot of a man. He's looking good. A lot of rookie receivers looking very good actually I Got London on my shop fantasy team and he he's approaching like Starting territory. I didn't think I mean you obviously got to be careful with rookie running rookie receivers on like not great teams But he looks legit fusion dual patch DK Metcalf Seahawks 6 of 47 a couple of three color swatches there. There's some regular cards. This one next is regular card actually You get art you get patch on this stuff in this are pretty rare. Here's like a regular card. These are new this year neon neon signs van jepperson 77 of 125 The rams and our PS rookie steel signatures Brian Robinson jr. 37 of 79.  Alrighty last box guys. We've got to get number three filled up. It's at 15 to go Again random team style half cases today guys There's divisions spots left for elements as well as I'm at collegiate to There's right. No, sorry. I'm at collegiate divisions sold out. We have random teams. I'm at collegiate as well also released today Hey, appreciate it Nate. Appreciate it guys Another Vila stones dude. This is the third Vila stones 48 and 99 bears rookie Another sauce garden this time. It's a xenon though 954 a xenon rookie sauce gardener jets Getting saucy in this break. It's a third sauce Supercharged rookie Jersey Christian Watson for the Packers Number 17 to 75. Yeah, we pulled that out of this. Yes. I was like, oh, I see you. I was like, oh, that's a rookie. Oh, no, no Snuck up on us Max Crosby neon signs raiders.  That's gorgeous and a rookie rps Steel signatures train McBride for the Cardinals number one of 27 It's like he signs Tim B. Dude, these are sick. I love the rps's All right, there we go. We'll do a recap in a second. Let's do as quick points random Getting random to everybody in the break here wild car seven Rivers up top is getting some points One two three four five six seven Kyle M is up top quick recap guys. I Did not expect that Okay, your relics here. We have Steelers TJ Watts and dual Jersey Chargers Isaiah Spiller rookie there Packers rookie Christian Watson Jets rookie patched sauce gardener dual patch Seahawks DK Metcalf and another rookie chart of not the rookie. Sorry Packers receiver said char chargers like it's super charged Romeo Dobbs autos now Trent McDuffie chiefs rookie auto Trent McDuffie chiefs bears Vilich Jones Jr. RPS Van Jefferson for the Rams neon signs. It's a mere white Nia rookie neon signs there for Vegas Another rps is Brian Robinson jr. It's a 79 Breeze Hall as well for the Jets on another rps a steel signatures and Juan bolden for the Cardinals 35 a Marshall yanda for the Ravens Good guys these cards like they get like dark, but like when there's light on them They got a shine on these things man 27 Marshall yanda Shrey McBride rookie neon signs a rookie still signatures excuse me for the Cardinals and a Max Crosby Raiders 2 of 10 and then we had a Rookie neon signs of CD lamb 16 of 25 my surprise hit for the Cowboys yet. That is a 2020 elements card No complaints on that one. Sometimes they put some older autos that aren't as desirable, but that's a nice one There we go. That'll do it number two is coming up


So, Wujud share task is actually as you can imagine. Oh, yeah, so. So we actually collaborated on this share task with my team and on Muhammad Abdul-Mageed's team. As you see there, we have seven people. So what we did actually, we shared the Wujud dataset. We have splitting that is not the same as the original paper of Wujud. So we made different splitting. So it means different results of course. So, the splitting we share it. So Wujud is about half million tokens, very rich to two sub tasks. One is called flat named entities and the other one is called misted named entities. As you see here, it's more assess at Edward Said Foundation is organization in the first task only organization. But in the second, there are two entities. One is the organization of the organization and the other one is Edward Said himself is a person. So two sub tasks. So as you know, or may know that Wujud is actually a very fine grained and rich corpus. It includes 21 kinds of entities types. And by the way, it's also include the daily, not only MSA and so on. So we made the splitting, we share it. We get 45 unique teams who registered and then 11 participated in the flat sub tasks and eight in the listed sub tasks. These are the names, the Scandaria University, two teams, Zartal, Khwerif, Al Ayadata, well, you can read it yourself, Franhover and so on. So as you see here, the best line. So this is the results of task one, flat near. So many people actually did much more than the best line. So we computed the best line 90% accuracy with the R-Bert and 88 with R-Bert. So two baselines, but many teams did more. The highest was 91.3. So with the nested near, as you see here, as you see here, somebody achieved 93 points, almost half, this is actually high number. What makes it actually even with Bearstone organization and so on, they are really high. But like event is very difficult and entity, very difficult. So it lowers, so some entities lower their results, but the known ones are simple and high. And as you see, the nested is higher than the flat. So that's it. And I invite you to talk with the authors of these papers.


The Institute has, as you know, a constant overview of issues with regard to justice, home affairs, criminal activity, etc. And we're very, very pleased today to have Detective Chief Superintendent Pat Clavin with us. And he's going to explain in a way, if we don't know already, why Ireland has focused on civil asset seizure. He's going to talk a little bit about the history of the setting up of the criminal assets bureau and the future direction of the criminal assets bureau. And frankly, since we set it up in 1996, it has been an example for countries all over the world. And we were joking with Pat that sometimes a celebrity in places like Norway and Malta is on their television because those institutions are sending people over to discuss the criminal assets bureau and what it does. And the amazing thing is that it isn't in existence in an awful lot of countries, you think it would be now. There's a whole issue of the asset profiler network. And also he's going to talk a little bit about some trends in the kind of penetration by criminals into the motor trade. We think criminals as drugs and thefts and cryptocurrencies, but there's a big issue with regard to the motor trade. And things go on around our country that most of us don't know and maybe we're better off not knowing what's going on around you. But I was saying to somebody that we probably all have stood drinking a glass of wine or a cup of tea with people who are serious criminals and we don't know it because they dress like us, they talk like us. They may have been to the same schools as us. And the job of people like Pat Lavin and the people working in the criminal assets bureau is to identify those people and take them out of society or take their assets out of society because with those assets they can further increase more criminal activity and also seduce in a way people who are in need of something and find that maybe the way to go the path to take is some kind of criminal activity and we have to try and protect people as well from getting into that. So Pat, we're looking forward to hearing what you have to say.  Focno Murphy, where's Focno? Oh there you are, sorry, I was looking down further. Focno Murphy headed up the first one. I was very pleased and honoured to have been in government when we instituted the criminal assets bureau on the back of some really serious murders. Veronica Gehran and the murder in Limerick of your colleague whose name is Jerry McCabe. So their legacy lives on in the criminal assets bureau. Pat, we look forward to hearing from you and afterwards there will be time for questions. Thank you very much indeed. Thanks very much chair and it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge your own support and your future vision at the time in 1996. We've often said that while we have slightly modified the criminal assets bureau we haven't changed it very much over the years because actually the model was got really good at the beginning. So to acknowledge yourself I also want to acknowledge the presence of Focno Murphy, the first chief bureau officer and later guard commissioner for his constant support. With me are Kevin McMill, the fifth bureau legal officer who follows on from people like Barry Galvin and others who are good public servants over the years and detective superintendent Jerry Egan. Ben Ryan is here from the department just to make sure that I don't stray too far away from the pat. I'm going to try to be as open as I can but I won't say anything in relation to a matter that's before the courts or that will get me or anybody else into trouble so let people just understand that. The first thing about the criminal asset bureau is that it's wonderful that its title actually tells you everything about it that you need to know. It's a bureau or body that only targets criminals and whose sole job it is to take their assets. It takes their assets in a number of different ways to process a crime, to taxes and to recoveries of social welfare payments. But you know there are many bodies that do the type of work we do but you won't see what they do in their title and actually it's something that we would hold on to for dear life. So I suppose just to kind of set it in context I'm talking about denying and depriving. We go after local targets, we go after national targets, we go after international targets. We're not really discerning about who we take on but lots of people think oh you only go after the big stuff, you only go after the big drug dealers, you don't go outside the M50, you wouldn't be interested in our local drug dealer. We're interested in anybody who fits our criteria. I suppose I was reminded by what the chair mentioned there about Norway and I was particularly minded by a female lawyer who spoke on the Norwegian television after their visit. I suppose her line was isn't everything grand the way it is. You know we don't really need it, the criminal system works quite well, we actually don't need this at all. So I'll ask the question then is every crime reporter and clearly it's not. Is every crime detected? Unfortunately not. Is there a suspect located for every crime? Definitely not. Are there always charges brought? No unfortunately. Is there always a conviction even when you do bring charges and again unfortunately not. And then I have some positive questions. Are drug dealers operating through underlings? Most definitely.  And are proceeds of crime converted into cash or property? Definitely. Like somebody who's stealing jewellery or other valuables will fence that off and will lodge the money into either a bank or invested in property or otherwise. So there is a need for another complementary way of law enforcement. I am not against the criminal law enforcement, I'm all for it and I welcome people being made amenable and I think that in certain circumstances people should go to prison. What we do is complementary to criminal law enforcement, it's not either or, it's complementary with. So I suppose we then look at what do we target? Do we target the man or do we target the asset? I think that's a man called John Gotti. So in criminal law enforcement we tend to look at the person in our line of work. We go after the ting, we go after the asset rather than the person and we use a process of civil law enforcement. So I suppose to give some context to it and there are people in this room who obviously have a better historical knowledge than I have. But we did have the troubles in Northern Ireland and that did bring about lots of guns in the country. You know, when I was young, I think every Friday there was a bank robbery somewhere, you don't really hear that as much anymore. There were ATM robberies, there were lots of things like that so guns became more commonplace in Ireland. And then we had the heroin epidemic and the start of organised crime groups as such probably from the 1980s onwards. And I think the legislators were up there early. There was a piece of legislation brought in overnight called the Offences Against the State Amendment Act 1985, specifically in relation to funds that were in the bank account in Navern County Mead. The case is called Clancy.  But along the way we were moving towards looking at assets through the Criminal Justice Act 1984 and I see Michael Brady here from the DPP's office. We had post-conviction asset seizure and like ourselves the standard of proof is civil in relation to the assets. Then moving it forward we had the awful murder of Veronica Geirin and Jerry McCabe in 1996. Cabe was established on an ad hoc basis I think July, August 1996 and on a statutory voting by the 15th of October 1996. Now I don't think we could imagine that happening in Parliament these days unless there was something really really big because it's difficult to get legislation passed with agreement. So the proceeds of crime act 1996 is the legislation for non-conviction based asset seizure in Ireland and we operate on the civil standard of proof which is the balance of probabilities. The criminal assets bureau act 1996 established Cabe as a statutory body and that was the primary piece of legislation, the sharp piece of legislation that hasn't had to be amended very much over the years. So I give some credit to a criminal with personality, Martin Cahill the general most definitely needs to get him mentioned because he's the embodiment of why you needed criminal assets bureau in Ireland. He didn't work other than as a robber, he drew the doll, he drew social welfare, he had a number of houses, his domestic arrangements were colourful and complex and he was a notorious criminal and he had kidnapped and shot an official who dared to withdraw his social welfare payments who later became the Secretary General of the Department of Justice and essentially he went around with a baletava, covered his face and he was having a right good laugh at this society and at this country and there's a Today Tonight programme from I think about 1988 wherein he's interviewed by Brendan O'Brien on RTE which you can Google and you can find on YouTube and he makes a joke out of the law in Ireland. Happily in 2005 his trophy properties were seized by the criminal assets bureau and sold and I was standing in the fact that he'd been murdered by the IRA in Dublin in 1994. So the proceeds of crime is our main piece of legislation in terms of asset recovery. There has been a new Section 1A inserted in the summer of 2016 and I would say that 2016 was a turning point as well in that you had the Regency murder and that would have been, I suppose, a wake-up call to lots of us. So you now have an administrative power of seizure. So if somebody is driving, for example, a fancy SUV, a bureau officer can seize that SUV for 24 hours. IAS chief bureau officer can administratively authorise his detention for a further 21 days and then we move into Section 2, which is our first order, which is a temporary order which has got ex parte in the High Court. After we get our ex parte order, the threshold of value you would expect to go up over the years. It started off at £10,000 which was rounded to €13,000. That was reduced in 2016 to €5,000 and we take that that we are meant to go after low value assets and we have done so. The lowest asset value we ever went for was in July this year which was €5,010. At the same time we probably went for the highest single asset value in the case which was over £50 million in Bitcoin. So we go for small, we go for big and that's what we do. After we get our Section 2 order, the other side is made aware of the order and we then move into a full hearing and if we get the order under Section 3 it lasts for seven years unless there's a consent order agreed under Section 4A. Quite a few of them actually do consent to an order because they want to get cab out of their hair. And then Section 4, when that happens, the asset is vested in the state and if it's a house, we sell the house and the money is remitted to central funds and that's essentially how we go about our business. So what are the elements that we would have in a typical case of ours? So we introduce evidence into the High Court in affidavits and we cover investigations into the criminal origins of the assets. We have to satisfy the court that this actual asset represents in whole or in part the proceeds of crime. We also have to satisfy the court that this person is engaged in criminal conduct. Now criminal conduct can be any form of criminal conduct that results in the acquisition or generation of wealth is criminal conduct from our point of view. We would get our revenue people to do an analysis of the person's declared income because nowadays we will have lots of people who actually will have a tax return done. They will have maybe a minimal earnings declared to in a sense legitimise themselves. So we have to say this is their declared income. The target or spouse or family may have some benefits that are coming in. We have to tell the court about those so our social welfare colleagues will swear an affidavit to that effect. We have accounting people and we have analysts and they would go through and do an analysis of the flows of income that are coming in and that are going out and we are focused on what's the unexplained part of what they have. We have technical people that do ICT examinations so they can look at phones, they can look at computers, whatever else. We have our own bureau staff that can do that and then my own affidavit is called the chief's belief. I must swear a belief. My belief is evidence in court. I can't say it's a great day, that's a belief. Tomorrow is going to be a good day. It has to be something that isn't a bold belief or a bare belief, it has to be supported by the evidence of everybody else and that's open to challenge and open to cross-examination and the judge must be satisfied that my belief is reasonably held and if we get that we're on our way and we've turned the tables towards the other side. The structure of CAB is a small body and we put, for lots of reasons, the Department of Justice and Equality, they pay for us, they provide our bureau staff and we work very closely with them and they provide our new policies, our new laws and we surround them with people from the guardish economy, people from the revenue commissioners and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection so we move into a building, we have a single building and we all live happily ever after that in our structure but I went to some little bit more detail on that. So I'm going to focus on two pieces of legislation. One is our objectives and the way I cover objectives is I say it's about CAB. So we spend most of our time doing C which is conducting investigations quietly where nobody is aware of it and we're doing preparatory work and we're trying to get evidence of A which is we want to identify assets that are from criminal conduct. So that's A and then finally we want to get to B which is the taking of appropriate action under law to deprive or deny those persons of the assets. So we go CAB and that's how we go about our work. That's our objective is to conduct investigations, identify assets to take them. So our statutory functions are threefold. The first one is we're required to free seas and confiscate the proceeds of crime which is done through the Proceeds of Crime Act that I've just described. The second one is we are required by law to tax the proceeds of crime. So we have revenue bureau officers who work with us and on our behalf they will tax the proceeds of crime. They're required by law to do that. They will find it difficult to kind of understand this whole idea of taxing the proceeds of crime but the law requires us to do that and totally our social welfare bureau officers are required to investigate and determine social welfare claims by any person engaged in criminal conduct and strangely the one person who can direct CAB to do something is not the Minister for Justice, not the guard commissioner but it's the Minister for Social Welfare. The Minister for Social Welfare can direct, where the Minister believes a social welfare officer may be subject to threats or other form of intimidation, Minister can, as a matter of mandatory direction, require us to take on that target. It's called Section 51D of the Act. We get a small number of cases every year where the Minister makes such certificates. So that's an unusual feature. So the CAB model, people talk about the Ryanair model, the Erlingus model, the CAB model is worth looking at. Right from the start it was a multi-agency and multi-disciplinary body and we wouldn't change the basic model if we were starting all over again or going into the future. We think that the model was got fairly right in the first place. So the team room where people sit in an open plan office so you'll have guards, you'll have revenue taxes, revenue customs, social welfare, they sit around and they're allocated cases and they work together in the team. So you don't have a taxes room, you don't have a garter room, you don't have a social welfare room. The team room was very much at the heart of what was decided. We have a closed computer system with the utmost secrecy. We don't have any mobile devices. Our closed computer is in one location and one location only and that has remained the way. We have a single office in a single location which we think is hugely important. We don't have satellite offices around the country. We have, for protection reasons and for other reasons, it's very important to us that all of us are together and that we're able to look out for each other together. But we're able to draw upon the support of the larger agencies in particular on Guard of Chicana. We're able to draw upon the revenue, be it taxes, be it customs and we're able to draw on our social welfare colleagues. So it's not that we're operating in isolation.  But we're also supported by professionals. The accountants are very important for us because we need professional accountants to be able to satisfy the court about the flows of funds. I'm not an accountant, but we can get accountants that can, I suppose, translate what to me looks like gibberish into something that's meaningful and that I can understand and ultimately a judge in the court can understand. And we have analysts. We have probably some of the top digital people that I know of working anywhere that are really good at looking at devices that are really good at searches and other activities. And I have to acknowledge that for a small body, we have really good legal cover. We have a pure legal officer. Kevin fulfills that function. But we also have an office of the Chiefsates Lister's Office which is co-located with ourselves and that has been there from the start. We think that that office needs to grow in accordance with our own growth because it's a very important part of what we do. And looking at an ad here, I think it was a contractor. I'm from an agricultural background and the agricultural contractor would advertise his wares and say, no job too big and no job too small and distance no object. So I'm saying no target is too big and no target is too small and distance is no object. So anywhere in the country or anywhere beyond, we are prepared to consider it once it meets our criteria. So our structure then looks a little bit on the complex side. So I'm the Chief Bureau Officer. Kevin is the Bureau Legal Officer. We put the Chiefsates Lister's Office in dots because they are co-located with us. They are not our staff. They I think ultimately are attached to the Department of Antishock. But CAB could not operate without them being co-located with ourselves. So we have garnish iconna, taxes and customs, social welfare. The Bureau Analysis Unit includes the Accountants and the Digital Specialists and Analysts. All our administration people are civil servants from the Department of Justice and Equality. There are no guardie involved in the administration in CAB. They're never were. That has been the way from day one and we have our own small IT unit. Down at the bottom we have two changes. IAO is called the Intelligence and Assessment Office. I call it the Goods Inwards Department. So typically somebody who is an asset profiler will send in somebody that they think that neighbour is driving too well and he or she never worked. So our Intelligence and Assessment Office look at that and see is this likely to be a good target for ourselves. And we have a high enough threshold. It's hard enough to get taken on by the Criminal Assets Bureau. But once you get taken on, it's very hard to get off the wagon. Once CAB are after you, they say it's hard enough to get off the wagon. So if they get through the Intelligence Assessment Office we have what's called an admissions board and the admissions board make a decision to admit them as a formal target. If we reject them, we don't reject them as such. We file them because we may get more information at a later date that says that we can take them on so all won't be lost by the fact that at this stage we don't see them as a viable target. And we then allocate them to the six investigation teams that are made up of Guardi, Taxes and Customs and Social Welfare. And then at the very end the AMO means the Asset Management Office. The management of assets is a very important function for us. So for example we have to sell houses, we have to pay local property taxes in houses, we have to cut the grass, we have to pay the electricity. There are lots of things that you have to do when you have assets and we have quite a few assets of various kinds. From race horse in one instance, to houses, to Bitcoin, lots of money, lots of bank accounts. We control assets in a number of different ways and we decided in the last two years to set up a dedicated office to manage outdoor assets and to realise the best value for the taxpayer where the money ultimately goes. So our numbers, roughly half of us are Guardi and roughly the other half are not Guardi. So there are 47 currently, our authorised numbers, 47 members of Guardi Icona. 21 from the Department of Justice and Equality which includes Kevin, the accountants, our admin people and our IT support. We have 17 from Revenue, Taxes and Customs and we have six from Social Welfare which is now called Employment Affairs and Social Protection. So examples of criminal conduct, I said that we would look at any form of criminal conduct that generates wealth so most of our cases revolve around drug trafficking at the back of it. But we have also other areas like brotl keeping, burglary, robbery, theft and fraud. That's a big issue for the common people of Ireland. Lots of people are bothered about machinery thefts, their farms have been broken into, their houses have been broken into. Corruption and extortion is something that has always been there. I'm celebrating cases down the years in terms of corruption in planning and other areas and more recently we've had cases that relate directly to extortion by criminals of people like builders. Fuel laundering and fuel smogling is a big issue. We have one particular case that revolves around an international male fraud and cases like that we're always willing to take on. Lots of motor trade offences like what's called a missing trader. The books are designed to look as if all the cards have come from somebody but when you go to find that trader that trader doesn't exist at all. The books have been cooked to design to make it look that way and there are also BAT and VRT scams that are within the motor trade. We had one case called phantom secure technology which involved somebody in North America providing secure technology to the South American drugs cartels but opened an office in Dublin and had a bank account here and we have revenue offences as a potential form of criminal conduct. So the types of assets that we have come across would include cash as our favourite. It's the easiest one to deal with and in fact if it's in a bank account all the better. But we've had to deal with cryptocurrency, Bitcoin and Ethereum are two that we've had to deal with. We were ahead of the game in the announcement in dealing with those. Money in accounts, high value watches, jewellery and designer bags. They're a big issue. There was a time that maybe on a search we would have walked away from watches and bags and whatever else but it's amazing the amount of wealth that can be pumped into designer goods like that. Houses and land are always a feature overseas property and high value department store cards is another area where we've come across somebody who is on social welfare and had a platinum gold card for a well-known department store and apparently it was like the old days when we had our Lingus cards you have to spend a certain amount over the year or you get downgraded from your platinum card and this was a person who was claiming social welfare from the taxpayer. So we have focused very much on asset profile or training where we train mostly Gardie around the country. To extend our remit beyond our modest size we train mostly Gardie but we train them from the other departments as well and from any other law enforcement that we can engage with. And so we encourage divisions and units to submit profiles and criminals who may have assets. We ask them to be our eyes and ears and we conduct two asset profile training courses a year we do about 60 at a time and we have brought people in from other agencies and indeed some of our UK colleagues have asked us to sit in as observers both from Northern Ireland and from, for example, HMRC in the UK. Profilers are trained to be the eyes and ears of CAB in the local division. To spot likely targets, submit a profile report conduct local enquiries and very importantly for us if they know the person's background they can swear what we call the criminal conduct affidavit. So, you know, I won't know personally every criminal that's in Dunigol or in West Cork. So the local asset profiler fulfills a big role for us there. So this is what we tell the profilers to look out for evidence of wealth houses with bulletproof windows and doors and these are not your trophy homes these are very often tree bedroom modest houses in local authority areas where there's an inordinate amount of money into them. Excessive spending on renovations and what I call the man cave the shed at the bottom of the garden which is converted into the man's room so that the man can go out and do his coke and drink his beer and free from all interference from the outside world. It's usually a sign that something isn't right. In terms of cars, executive cars, SUVs that are frequently changed and perhaps registered to a third party or a false name or address like Las Vegas, Dubai, South America, Australia very often to Spain, Canaries and the UK very often centred around boxing tournaments and other issues like that that might be an indicator of the type of people that we're interested in and some of them create fictitious employment so they want to give the illusion that they're implied and if you can manage to break it they will actually be paying the so-called employer to create the illusion that they're implied by them so that they have tax and that they have a record that maybe get a mortgage on the basis of what they're well able to work. There are businesses that are fictitious as well we've had garages that are fictitious we've had security firms that exist in name only and then we have value goods like bags, clothes, footwear, jewellery watches and store cards. So when we train people as cab profilers we cover the legislation relating to cab and then our other agencies so the revenue customs and social protection cover what they do we cover anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing we cover the investigation of money laundering we always get an input from the asset seizure unit of the DPP's office on post-conviction confiscation and that office works very closely with ourselves in lots of ways and indeed we would use the asset profiler network at times we teach them about asset identification and we give them certain investigative tools we show them how to compile an asset profile and you know we tell them what their own responsibility is as an asset profiler it's important for us I think to look at the programme for government so the most recent programme for government is in 2016 and that programme commits to reviewing the existing process of crime legislation and ensuring that adequate support adequate resources are provided to support cab intacting money laundering and target the process of crime and I mean in 2016 we had an amendment to the process of crime act that gave us our administrative power of seizure and also reduced the threshold of value we are constantly in discussions with the department about reviewing the legislation and we spot new trends we'll always be passing it on to our policy people the government commits to examining how communities can better engage with cab including the provision of information on the suspected local use of the process of crime and the potential of a smaller cab being established to target regional or local assets we as a body are against minicabs or local cabs or regional cab we think that the cab that you have is quite a minicab as it is it's 91 people compared to I suppose 17,000 in a garish agona maybe 7,000 in revenue maybe 10,000 in social welfare we think that you will dilute what cab does if you try to create local or regional cabs but again we're happy to discuss that as an alternative we have put a lot of effort into the asset profiler network and working with the local communities and we briefed all the giant policing committees throughout the state from November 17 to December 18 all 36 JPCs we briefed and we got a lot of information in as a result of that we have a map here that shows in 2016 we had about 600 person targets throughout the state that's gone to 1,321 in September gone of note is that about half our targets are in the greater Dublin area just slightly less than half and about slightly more than half are outside of the greater Dublin within greater Dublin the DMR west stretches from Finglas to Raqqul has 235 which is twice the numbers in the next highest which are its near neighbours of DMR Nart and DMR South Limerick city and county is the next biggest area outside of it and then we noticed growing trends in the counties around Dublin like Dublin, Mead, Wexford, Loud counties that you'd expect that are close to Dublin so what does cab do well is to use multi-disciplinary investigation teams to identify and target assets to deny and deprive criminals of ill-gotten gains it does what it was set up for it doesn't pretend to do anything other than what its title says that's what it has all was done and it complements other law enforcement it doesn't, it's not operating exclusive to other law enforcement if I say this I think one of the most effective things we do is we carry out large scale search operations on warrants and when we do that we are about 80% of the journey there we have a fair good idea of what we're looking for it'll be convincing files it'll be evidence of spending it'll be assets sometimes we bring specialists that will look at how much was spent on that house so you could have a modest 250,000 house and we could satisfy the court and half a million was spent on it in renovations and extensions we've been targeting law and mid-tier criminals with the object of preventing them from becoming the godfathers of tomorrow if we could hit them harder earlier we feel that some of them mightn't go on the life of crime that they would otherwise we present our cases in public in the High Court but the exception of the first case which is ex-party all our other cases are presented in public and the public can see what's happening and in our own way along with other law enforcement we help to dismantle organised crime groups in terms of ICT we have a closed cab system but all of our officers have access to what we call their mothership system so a guard has access to the guard of pulse system a social welfare officer has full access to the social welfare information and the revenue taxes and customs have full access to their system that's very powerful to bring all those people with all that information the actor who set up in the first place allows for the exchange of information without any issues we are bringing, sorry the financing science lab in place so that we can examine computers and other devices we have two new developments one that's imminently about to be implemented which is called the asset and financial management system so that we will be able to produce like management reports about where our assets are, where our monies are it's necessary that that be brought in we have to put ourselves on a professional footing and e-discovery is about having the ability in a computer system to examine big data so there are big solicitors firms for example that have systems that are able to look through big volumes of computer generated data and ask them questions interrogate the data and help us in a way that if we got 500 extra people maybe if we had a good e-discovery system we'd be able to better do our work than necessarily getting extra people so I'm going to talk about very briefly about two cases one is Operation Laught which was about the fuel laundry that happened around Hatbal's Cross in County Loud but reading the story about that was like reading a novel about the whole illicit fuel trade right throughout the country because you had garages in every town particularly ones that had no brand on them where you had tankers delivering fuel in the middle of the night or early in the morning it was actually corrupting the whole fuel trade throughout the country and so CAB went after that entity and the case was finalised and settled in favour of the Bureau in 2018 and this is David Bourne who was murdered in the Regency Hotel again as I say in my view it's a turning point that caused us to start thinking again about organised crime so CAB went after Bourne organised crime group and seized assets that worked £2.7 million and one of the features of that case which we called Operation Lamp was that cars were being used as currency that cars were actually being swapped between criminals where money wasn't necessarily changing hands so somebody is owed a drug set give them a Range Rover and give them an X5 BMW instead and they're all happy the car won't be registering their name if the police stop them the car disappears so this is what the judge recognised in that court and so this is the nicest picture that you will ever find which is the sight of a transporter taking away the cars from LS active cars as it was called it should have been called LS inactive cars because there was no trade going on at all there all that was happening was that there were criminals meeting for crime summit and there were swapping cars with each other when we went through I think 29 days of CCDV we didn't find a single car sale that took place within the 29 days and so the court was satisfied that this motor business was used as a slush fund for the Bourne organised crime group which we told the court was the Kinhan organised crime gang in Ireland and so I never miss an opportunity to give out our telephone number 6663266 please phone us with information it's inevitable that somebody in this room has information press 2 you'll get true to a human being who will transfer you to somebody who will take your call we also have an email address which will be answered which is infoatcab.ie we have a very basic website www.cab.ie and we're on Twitter and Facebook and that completes my presentation chair