guidanceplease
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio
I have been on disability my entire adult life. I suffered from agoraphobia, crippling anxiety, panic attacks, social phobia, paranoia and depression. I lived in a retirement village from the age of 18. I am now 36.
In 2010, I played an online game with a virtual currency that you could exchange for real money. Within that virtual environment I, along with two others whom I'd never met face to face, created a virtual pet game. We agreed on a handshake just to split everything. Having been home-schooled and no experience with the outside world or business to speak of, I was really dumb and naive. I had never ever broken the law in my life. I lived in a bubble. The internet and writing stories were my only device of socialization.
The online pet game made the three of us a lot of game tokens, which we could cash out in exchange for real money on a virtual exchange, but the value fluctuated, and the TOS of the platform on which i created stated we were not allowed to define a dollar value to the tokens. I wanted to cash money out because I wanted to go to school and improve my life.
At this time my mother, who is 64, had only been married for 3 months and her new husband decided he could not deal with her and was kicking her out. She had given up everything, her home, her social security and her insurance to marry him. She was afraid of becoming homeless. She knew of my situation and told me that I needed someone to look out for me, and that whatever the tokens were worth needed to be exchanged before they were valueless and she would take care of things on my behalf if she could use it to also keep her secure by having a nestegg to get back on her feet.
So, we cashed out the money to her account which all of the family had access too, she shared a debit card with my niece and got me one in my name for expenses.
I went to the disability office to ask for help understanding what to do. The woman said I wasn't legitimately employed, and the tokens were worthless unless someone was willing to pay for them. I explained to her that I wanted to go to school and get a house for my family, and she told me she needed to see the terms of service of the game i had the tokens in and contact the state head office in columbus.
I waited to hear back after returning a week later with the printed Terms of service and all about the exchange. She said she was going to get back to me to determine what I should do. I waited four month and then went to see the Social Security lawyer who had represented me as a kid. He did not understand virtual currency and told me that asked who my employer was. I tried explaining to him that the game owners were not my employer, that i was not employed and only had cash value in tokens. Then he said he needed to determine if that qualified as an asset. He said he had to do some research and I never heard from him again.
I did go to school in another state, forcing myself out into the real world was the hardest thing i ever did. It caused me to develop alcoholism to manage the mental strain of dealing with the world and people and I created an alternate identity in my head. During this period my mother and I had a disagreement- she wanted to do things like buy my brother a car and a computer and was telling me her husband was trying to kill her and she needed to get out, so she kept on getting money out while I was away, and so did my niece and nephews, left and right and I never knew. I explained to her that we would need to pay taxes regardless and as soon as I heard from Social Security if they told me I had to pay back any amount I needed to have something left.
My mother ended up stealing everything, almost 200,000 dollars. She and he husband, and they never spoke to me again. They never showed up to meet me at the tax filing place. Pretty soon I realized I had no choice but to cash what was left out on my own so it could not be taken by unseen hands any more and there was not enough left to pay taxes with or the debts i had accrued. Soon I was penniless, home from school and still collecting disability.
I had no one who would help me, guide me or tell me what to do, but I feel like my stupidity was exploited, my niece took money with my mom and vanished, so did my nephew. None of them have ever spoken to me again. After only a year my two business partners locked me out of the business, changed my passwords and took it over because of my extended absences. I had no recourse. There were no contracts, nothing. I gave away money to friends who asked, they disappeared. I did not understand these implications. I did not ever intend to do anything wrong.
I ws left in debt and unable to pay the taxes and still collecting disability. I went to see another attorney to help me make things right. He talk me "Let sleeping dogs lie" and claimed he had made a couple of inquiries on my behalf to prosecutors who said they would prosecute me for fraud and send me to prison. He said they wouldn't care about the details, the sob stories and would treat me like a criminal. I was terrified. He told me just to let everything go, let my mom keep the money, let my business partners keep the business, shut my mouth about it all and go home.
But now I live in fear every day that I am going to jail. I miss my simple life in the retirement village. My anxieties and disabilities are worse than ever. I never leave my house. I am in a severe depression over this. I feel like it's hanging over my head. I've contemplated suicide. I have wanted to go turn myself in. I feel lost and helpless and no one has been willing to help me or guide me and I have no mother anymore to go to. I just don't want to be a criminal. I don't have a clue where to begin or how to fix anything but I know that taxes need paid on that money and my mother never paid them. I still feel like I should have had some answers from the social security adminitration about my SSI. I did not willfully commit a crime by any means but I know that is irrelevant to the law system and they will just throw me in jail for years for tax evasion and disability fraud with no questions asked. I tried to ask questions and seek guidance from people who simply turned their shoulder to me because they didn't understand and I am not satisfied with being told to let sleeping dogs lie, that is just delaying the inevitable. I want to do the right thing. Does anyone have any clue where I should start?
I have been on disability my entire adult life. I suffered from agoraphobia, crippling anxiety, panic attacks, social phobia, paranoia and depression. I lived in a retirement village from the age of 18. I am now 36.
In 2010, I played an online game with a virtual currency that you could exchange for real money. Within that virtual environment I, along with two others whom I'd never met face to face, created a virtual pet game. We agreed on a handshake just to split everything. Having been home-schooled and no experience with the outside world or business to speak of, I was really dumb and naive. I had never ever broken the law in my life. I lived in a bubble. The internet and writing stories were my only device of socialization.
The online pet game made the three of us a lot of game tokens, which we could cash out in exchange for real money on a virtual exchange, but the value fluctuated, and the TOS of the platform on which i created stated we were not allowed to define a dollar value to the tokens. I wanted to cash money out because I wanted to go to school and improve my life.
At this time my mother, who is 64, had only been married for 3 months and her new husband decided he could not deal with her and was kicking her out. She had given up everything, her home, her social security and her insurance to marry him. She was afraid of becoming homeless. She knew of my situation and told me that I needed someone to look out for me, and that whatever the tokens were worth needed to be exchanged before they were valueless and she would take care of things on my behalf if she could use it to also keep her secure by having a nestegg to get back on her feet.
So, we cashed out the money to her account which all of the family had access too, she shared a debit card with my niece and got me one in my name for expenses.
I went to the disability office to ask for help understanding what to do. The woman said I wasn't legitimately employed, and the tokens were worthless unless someone was willing to pay for them. I explained to her that I wanted to go to school and get a house for my family, and she told me she needed to see the terms of service of the game i had the tokens in and contact the state head office in columbus.
I waited to hear back after returning a week later with the printed Terms of service and all about the exchange. She said she was going to get back to me to determine what I should do. I waited four month and then went to see the Social Security lawyer who had represented me as a kid. He did not understand virtual currency and told me that asked who my employer was. I tried explaining to him that the game owners were not my employer, that i was not employed and only had cash value in tokens. Then he said he needed to determine if that qualified as an asset. He said he had to do some research and I never heard from him again.
I did go to school in another state, forcing myself out into the real world was the hardest thing i ever did. It caused me to develop alcoholism to manage the mental strain of dealing with the world and people and I created an alternate identity in my head. During this period my mother and I had a disagreement- she wanted to do things like buy my brother a car and a computer and was telling me her husband was trying to kill her and she needed to get out, so she kept on getting money out while I was away, and so did my niece and nephews, left and right and I never knew. I explained to her that we would need to pay taxes regardless and as soon as I heard from Social Security if they told me I had to pay back any amount I needed to have something left.
My mother ended up stealing everything, almost 200,000 dollars. She and he husband, and they never spoke to me again. They never showed up to meet me at the tax filing place. Pretty soon I realized I had no choice but to cash what was left out on my own so it could not be taken by unseen hands any more and there was not enough left to pay taxes with or the debts i had accrued. Soon I was penniless, home from school and still collecting disability.
I had no one who would help me, guide me or tell me what to do, but I feel like my stupidity was exploited, my niece took money with my mom and vanished, so did my nephew. None of them have ever spoken to me again. After only a year my two business partners locked me out of the business, changed my passwords and took it over because of my extended absences. I had no recourse. There were no contracts, nothing. I gave away money to friends who asked, they disappeared. I did not understand these implications. I did not ever intend to do anything wrong.
I ws left in debt and unable to pay the taxes and still collecting disability. I went to see another attorney to help me make things right. He talk me "Let sleeping dogs lie" and claimed he had made a couple of inquiries on my behalf to prosecutors who said they would prosecute me for fraud and send me to prison. He said they wouldn't care about the details, the sob stories and would treat me like a criminal. I was terrified. He told me just to let everything go, let my mom keep the money, let my business partners keep the business, shut my mouth about it all and go home.
But now I live in fear every day that I am going to jail. I miss my simple life in the retirement village. My anxieties and disabilities are worse than ever. I never leave my house. I am in a severe depression over this. I feel like it's hanging over my head. I've contemplated suicide. I have wanted to go turn myself in. I feel lost and helpless and no one has been willing to help me or guide me and I have no mother anymore to go to. I just don't want to be a criminal. I don't have a clue where to begin or how to fix anything but I know that taxes need paid on that money and my mother never paid them. I still feel like I should have had some answers from the social security adminitration about my SSI. I did not willfully commit a crime by any means but I know that is irrelevant to the law system and they will just throw me in jail for years for tax evasion and disability fraud with no questions asked. I tried to ask questions and seek guidance from people who simply turned their shoulder to me because they didn't understand and I am not satisfied with being told to let sleeping dogs lie, that is just delaying the inevitable. I want to do the right thing. Does anyone have any clue where I should start?
