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Friday, March 7 2014 THENEWPAPER
Future MRT lines could have ‘express’ trains
blood was flowing from the parapet down the roller shutter of the refuse dump to the floor.
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THENEWPAPER Friday, March 7 2014
hELPLiNES
— Mr K. Lekshmanan, a cleaning supervisor who found the body of Ms Autumn Radtke (right, with Virgin Group founder Richard Branson).
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DEAD: Flowers left at the spot where the body of Ms Autumn Radtke was supposedly found. PHOTOS: REUTERS, TWITTER/ AUTUMNRADTKE
ANoThEr biTcoiN ExchANgE biTES ThE DuST After the collapse of Mt. Gox, once the world’s dominant bitcoin exchange, now Canada-based virtual currency exchange Flexcoin has been forced to close down.
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Cleaning supervisor who finds body of dead CEO:
There was a foul
smell Report by BENJAMIN LIM benlim@sph.com.sg
He was walking to the cluster of HDB blocks at Cantonment Close when a shocking sight greeted him.
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Lying on the parapet above the refuse dump at Block 8 was a body. “Blood was flowing from the parapet down the roller shutter of the refuse dump to the floor. “The whole place was red, it looked very scary,” said Mr K. Lekshmanan, 53, who was there on the morning of Feb 26 to supervise his cleaners. The cleaning supervisor told The New Paper he decided to go up to the second storey to take a closer look. But after he climbed up the stairs, he lost his courage and turned back. He said: “I didn’t dare go too close to the body. There was a foul smell and I felt uncomfortable.”
Mr Lekshmanan called the police, who said they received a call at 7.05am requesting assistance at the block. Upon arrival, they found a woman lying motionless at the scene. She was pronounced dead by paramedics. Police have classified the case as one of unnatural death. Preliminary investigations concluded there was no foul play involved. It is understood that the woman was Ms Autumn Radtke, CEO of First Meta, a Singapore-based virtual currency exchange company. The company allows users to buy and sell virtual currencies for real money, including Linden Dollars from online social networking game Second Life. It also allows users to sell bitcoin, the digital currency that has been hit by turmoil over the past few weeks, although the bitcoin exchange link on the company’s website did not work at press time.
SADDENED
First Meta confirmed Ms Radtke’s death in a statement on its website and Facebook page: “The First Meta team is shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and CEO Autumn Radtke. “Our deepest condolences go out to her family, friends and loved ones. Autumn was an inspiration to all of us and she will be sorely missed.” The New Paper understands that the 28-year-old American lived in a shophouse at 11, Everton Road, a two-minute walk from where she was found dead. Her profile on professional networking website LinkedIn stated that she had been in Singapore since January 2012. Previous companies where Ms Radtke worked at include Xfire, an instant messaging service for gamers, and Virgin Charter, the defunct online marketplace for chartered private flights owned by Virgin Group’s founder Sir Richard Branson. Ms Krystal Choo, an entrepreneur and founder of travel search company Zip Trip, paid tribute to Ms Radtke on her Facebook page last Friday. She added that a memorial service was held for the former CEO that day.
Flexcoin said flaws in its software code enabled hackers to make off with bitcoins worth around C$600,000 (S$687,000). “As Flexcoin does not have the resources, assets or otherwise to come back from this loss, we are closing our doors immediately,” it said in a statement. Mt. Gox had also blamed hacking for its losses. It filed for bankruptcy protection in Tokyo last month and said it may have lost some 850,000 bitcoins due to hacking, Reuters reported. One bitcoin was valued at about US$658 on Wednesday, according to Bitstamp, one of the largest exchanges for trading bitcoins. Meanwhile, a shop selling the virtual Bitcoin currency opened in Hong Kong on March 1. Touting itself as the world’s “first” physical Bitcoin retail store, Hong Kong-based exchange ANXBTC said it could help raise the popularity of the crypto-currency, AFP reported. ANXBTC chief executive officer Ken Lo said the Mt. Gox saga was only “a drop in the bucket” and that the Bitcoin market remained bullish. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has warned consumers to be cautious about buying and using bitcoins as they are not regulated here.
biTcoiN vENDiNg mAchiNES
The warning comes even as the bitcoin vending machine suppliers plan to roll out many more islandwide. With Singapore having six such machines so far, the number could soon double. As the machines accept only cash for bitcoins and not the other way around, the MAS refers to them as vending machines rather than ATMs. The three bitcoin vending machine suppliers here, Numoni, Bitcoin Exchange and Tembusu Terminals, say that while the number of actual transactions has not been very high, a lot of merchants have requested a bitcoin machine to be placed in their shops. These include pubs, sellers of computer and mobile phone accessories and computer game shops, said Numoni chief executive Norma Sit. Last week, Numoni launched four bitcoin vending machines at Sim Lim Square, Singapore Management University, Lucky Plaza and Funan DigitaLife Mall. Bitcoin Exchange said response to its machine at Citylink Mall exceeded its expectations, with a queue forming when the machine went live last Friday. “We originally planned to have four machines in Singapore by the end of the year, but we may revise this number upwards,” director Zann Kwan told The Straits Times. Tembusu Terminals, which has a machine at the Spiffy Dapper pub at Boat Quay, plans to launch several more machines over the coming weeks.