captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> kroft: it is believed to be the biggest money laundering case in history, involving nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars of very suspicious money from russia and former soviet states. it was turned into untraceable american dollars. >> $230 billion. >> kroft: one bank. >> wilkinson: one bank. >> kroft: one branch. >> wilkinson: one branch. >> kroft: and this is the whistleblower who found one loose thread and decided to pull on it. a lot of this money came into the bank and was out the door the next day, right? >> wilkinson: the next day? oh, you think it was that slow? ( laughs ) >> wertheim: in more than 70 countries worldwide, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or l.g.b.t. citizens live in fear for their safety, their

freedom, and in some cases, their lives. their governments not only sanction brutality against them, but often carry it out. there's no obvious or easy escape path, but for those lucky enough to hitch a ride there is something called the rainbow railroad. >> cooper: you've probably heard of bitcoin, but to understand how the electronic currency works or why it's value has fluctuated so dramatically. tonight we'll introduce you to some central characters from the cryptocurrency revolution, and tell you the unlikely story of the first ever bitcoin transaction. so-- okay. sorry, let me just get this straight. you spent about $800 million on pizza? >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm scott pelley. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm jon wertheim. >> i'm bill whitaker. those stories, tonight, on "60 minutes." so, jardiance asks...

when it comes to type 2 diabetes, are you thinking about your heart? well, i'm managing my a1c, so i should be all set. right. actually, you're still at risk for a fatal heart attack or stroke. even if i'm taking heart medicine, like statins or blood thinners? yep! that's why i asked my doctor what else i could do... she told me about jardiance. that's right. jardiance significantly reduces the risk of dying from a cardiovascular event for adults who have type 2 diabetes and known heart disease. that's why the american diabetes association recommends the active ingredient in jardiance. and it lowers a1c? yeah- with diet and exercise. jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration, genital yeast or urinary tract infections, and sudden kidney problems. ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may be fatal. a rare, but life-threatening, bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this bacterial infection, ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction.

do not take jardiance if you are on dialysis or have severe kidney problems. so, what do you think? now i feel i can do more to go beyond lowering a1c. ask your doctor about jardiance today. the one thing you learn pretty as a small bquickly,owner, is that there's a lot to learn. grow with google is here to help you with turning ideas into action. putting your business on the map, connecting with customers, and getting the skills to use new tools. so, in case you're looking, we've put all the ways we can help in one place. free training, tools, and small business resources are now available at google.com/grow

the matters.ar... introducing the all-new 2019 ford ranger, it's the right gear. with a terrain management system for... this. a bash plate for... that. an electronic locking rear differential for... yeah... this. heading to the supermarket? get any truck. heading out here? get the ford ranger. the only adventure gear built ford tough. let's see, aleve is than tylenol extra strength. and last longer with fewer pills. so why am i still thinking about this? i'll take aleve. aleve. proven better on pain.

>> kroft: money laundering is the way clever crooks hide, and eventually spend, all of the money they have stolen. and this is a tale about what's believed to be the biggest money laundering scheme in history. it involves nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars of very suspicious money from russia and the former soviet union, that was funneled into the western banking system right under the noses of major banks and regulators in the united states and europe, who either facilitated it or turned a blind eye. at the heart of it is a whistle- blower, who found one loose

thread and decided to pull on it. howard wilkinson is an oxford man: cautious, prudent and a bit of a stickler. after his cover was blown last fall in a newspaper article as the person who uncovered the scandal, he has spent much of his time wandering the british countryside trying not to be found. >> howard wilkinson: being named as a whistle-blower in a case involving dirty russian money, it's not a good place to be. >> kroft: you're still concerned? >> wilkinson: you've got to be, haven't you? the very nature of the people who want to launder money probably means that they're not the sort that you want to go down the pub and have a pint with. >> kroft: but he did sit down with us, and told his tale about a financial crime so big, it's hard to fathom. >> wilkinson: the end number that's reported for the whole thing, over the six or seven years, is $230 billion of suspicious money. >> kroft: one bank. >> wilkinson: one bank, $230 billion. >> kroft: one branch. >> wilkinson: one branch. >> kroft: wilkinson had worked there as a mid-level executive

for danske bank, the biggest financial institution in denmark, and one of the most respectable banks in europe. as head of markets for the baltics, he worked out of a branch in tallinn, estonia, a former soviet republic, now a nato member right next door to the russian bear. there were tensions, but also business opportunities, and wilkinson eventually discovered his branch's biggest business was converting russian rubles of highly questionable origin into crisp, clean untraceable american dollars. >> wilkinson: customers would be calling up every morning. "please, i want to sell 20 million rubles and buy dollars." we would quote them the price for that. they would get the dollars. basically, that was-- that was the large part of what we did. >> kroft: and there was nothing illegal about that. >> wilkinson: banks are supposed to check the money coming in. is it clean? and the banks are supposed to check, where does the money go in the end? >> kroft: and you're saying it wasn't being done. >> wilkinson: evidently, it wasn't being done.

>> kroft: that's an example of british understatement. international money laundering laws require that banks know their customers, and report suspicious transactions to authorities. yet suspicious transactions would turn out to be the vast majority of the business in the bank's non-resident portfolio, which was made up of clients from russia, azerbaijan and other former soviet states. a lot of this money came into the bank and was out the door the next day, right? >> wilkinson: the next day? oh, you think it was that slow? ( laughs ) you know, the customers would call every day. they would sell their rubles for dollars. and that would be what we would see. we didn't-- you know, what-- we didn't see where the money went. >> kroft: so your business was really to execute the trades. >> wilkinson: yeah, basically. >> kroft: not vet the clients. >> wilkinson: absolutely, not to-- not to vet the clients. >> kroft: that job, wilkinson was assured, was being done by a special committee that carefully screened all international customers before they were allowed to open an account. he discovered otherwise almost

by accident, when a colleague asked him to help with some paperwork on one of the bank's big customers, a british company, called lantana trade, l.l.p. >> wilkinson: to me, being british, the obvious place to look for financial information about a company is the public register. this is public. but apparently, this was rocket science. ( laughter ) apparently, this was rocket science, and no one had ever thought about it. >> kroft: wilkinson consulted a british government website, known as companies house. >> wilkinson: i paid one pound, $1.30, and i got the company's financial statements. and it was a bit strange. because it said that the company was dormant. now, dormant means the company hasn't done a single transaction. >> kroft: he knew that couldn't have been right, having looked at lantana's bank statement. >> kroft: how much lantana money was passing through the bank? >> wilkinson: up to $20 million a day. >> kroft: $20 million a day? >> wilkinson: yeah, some days. >> kroft: not exactly dormant. >> wilkinson: it's not dormant at all. >> kroft: the public documents raised other suspicions.

lantana seemed to be a british company in name only, with a postal address in an unremarkable office building in with at least 64 other shell companies with accounts at danske bank estonia, and connections to remote exotic places known for banking secrecy and money laundering. >> wilkinson: so we've got a u.k. company with a registered office in north london, with an account in an estonian bank, that's actually run by russians. and the partners, the owners, are from the seychelles and the marshall islands. >> kroft: to wilkinson, it screamed money laundering. he explained what he found to people at the bank who handled the russian accounts, and was told that it was a simple paperwork screw-up that would be fixed. 13 months later, he heard that lantana had been told to take its banking business elsewhere. among the concerns was money laundering by a member of the putin family. >> wilkinson: it seemed to be mr. igor putin, who is, i think,

the cousin of the russian president. there were links to the f.s.b. the f.s.b. is, i think, the successor to the k.g.b. so, some sort of secret police. the people running the company have been associated with several banks that had gone bust in russia in bad circumstances. >> kroft: igor putin, the president's first cousin, has been associated with other russian money laundering schemes, but has always professed his innocence. to howard wilkinson, hearing the putin name was further confirmation that something was wrong. what did you do then? >> wilkinson: this needed to go to copenhagen. this needed to go to the head office. so i made a whistle-blowing report to four very senior executives, including one of the executive board. a whistle-blowing report about what had happened, and what seemed to be wrong. >> kroft: concerned that others at the bank might be involved in a cover-up, wilkinson decided to look into three more of the bank's customers that were registered in britain. >> wilkinson: i paid three pounds and i took the accounts for these next three.

and they were all false. >> kroft: you're four for four. >> wilkinson: i'm batting four for four. >> kroft: is it possible that people just could have missed this? >> wilkinson: well, i then went 16 for 16, by looking at another 12. ( laughs ) so-- oh, of which 15 were the same address. so, it-- yeah. at some point, it stops being possible to be a coincidence. not just were the accounts all false, the accounts all basically looked the same. i mean, basically just change a couple of numbers, but they all basically looked the same. >> kroft: when you started doing all this, what did people say to you at the bank? >> wilkinson: nothing. >> kroft: nothing? ( laughs ) >> wilkinson: exactly. nothing. people stopped calling around to say hello. >> kroft: is it true that a high-ranking executive at the bank told you, "this bank is not the police, that the bank has no obligation to report false clients' accounts to the authorities?" >> wilkinson: perfectly true. >> kroft: frustrated with the lack of action, wilkinson resigned, and took his family back to britain. it would take nearly five years

for danske bank to come up with answers, after prodding from the scandinavian and european press. after reviewing more than 6,000 non-resident accounts, it acknowledged at a news conference last fall that its tiny estonian branch was the gateway for what may be the largest money laundering case in history. >> wilkinson: i'd only scratched the surface. however huge the number seemed to me back in 2013, back in 2014, unbelievably, i'd only just scratched the surface of what was actually going on in the bank. >> kroft: do you have any idea what percentage of that money was dirty? >> wilkinson: they said that almost all the customers were suspicious. >> kroft: so far, at least 18 former danske bank employees are facing charges in the case, including former c.e.o. thomas borgen, and his chief financial officer. the bank itself faces four counts of violating the danish anti-money laundering act. >> stephen kohn: danske bank itself admits to a complete breakdown of every single internal control.

this isn't one or two mistakes. this is a mistake of their entire system over years, of which they profited immensely. >> kroft: attorney stephen kohn, who has been representing whistle-blowers for more than 30 years, and is howard wilkinson's lawyer, says danske bank is not the only one that profited from the scheme. most of the $230 billion passed through big new york banks undetected for years. what does that sheer number, $230 billion, tell you? >> kohn: well, first off, it's almost impossible to put your hands around. you're dealing with major financial institutions worldwide, who are complicit. >> kroft: when you say "complicit," what do you mean? >> kohn: the moment you're doing money laundering in large amounts of money, billions, hundreds of millions, you need the big banks. and the big banks are under strict regulations, from the patriot act, anti-terrorist financing, very strict rules to

stop money launder >> kroft: you're saying that they should've known? >> kohn: oh, they absolutely should'vkn >> kroft: j.p. morgan was the first to suspect that danske bank was laundering large amounts of russian money through its estonian branch, and it broke off its banking relationship in 2013. deutsche bank u.s.a. and bank of america carried on into 2015. the banks aren't talking to us, but i would assume that they'll say, "look, it's-- it's danske bank's job to know who its customers are. our customer is danske bank. we have no reason to know all this money is flowing in to estonia from, from russia and..." >> kohn: sure. of course, they-- ( laughs ) let's just put it this way. you have to have due diligence. and you have this little bank out there in estonia pumping in billions of dollars to you. do you think you should ask? but the proof of the pudding is that j.p. morgan figured it out. were they geniuses? and who did they tell? and why didn't they expose the

full scheme to the united states? why was it up to one guy in a bank in estonia to figure it out and turn it in, risking everything? why is it always up to the whistle-blower? >> kroft: what's the answer to that question? >> kohn: the banks have to do their job. and the only way they will be held fully accountable is when the united states and other governments hold them accountable, and force them to implement the rules that exist to protect all o. >> kroft: all of that is being weighed right now by the u.s. justice department and other federal agencies, which are investigating danske bank. it's cooperating with the investigation, as are j.p. morgan, bank of america, and deutsche bank u.s.a. none of the banks accepted our requests for interviews. the case could end up with hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, and under u.s. whistle-blower laws, howard wilkinson could potentially share in the proceeds.

i mean, you were the whistle- blower in this case, correct? >> wilkinson: i guess so. >> kroft: under u.s. law, you could end up being rewarded with a substantial amount of money. >> wilkinson: back in december '13, the idea that this would be a case that the u.s. department of justice and s.e.c. would ever have any interest in would never even cross my mind. you know, the bank should've investigated it, sorted it out. what happened? basically nothing. it's shocking. >> kroft: it's impossible to say exactly where the $230 billion of dirty money originated, beyond the banks of moscow. it's been estimated that about a third of the russian economy is off the books. awash in cash, much of it is from corruption, bribes, and tax evasion li and mafiosi. and, it is impossible to tell exactly where it is hidden now, beyond the shell companies, tax havens and expensive real estate in new york and london.

do you think that there's any chance that we'll ever find out whose money it was and where it ended up? >> wilkinson: it's going to be difficult. and the fact that it's so difficult is fully the responsibility of danske bank. think about walking in the snow. the snow keeps falling, and the footprints are covered up, and that's where we are now in 2019. it's certainly not impossible, but it's many, many times harder. a lot of snow has fallen over the footprints. >> cbs sports hq is presented by progressive insurance. at the 101st pga championship, american brooks koepka took the title for the second straight year. he shot a final round 74 after a seven-shot lead entering the round to hold off dustin johnson by two. it's his fourth major win in the last eight starts. st. louis beat san jose in the nhl playoffs. and for 24/7news and highlight,

visit cbssportshq.com. jim nantz reporting from farmingdale new york. oh, could you, uh, make me a burger? -poof -- you're a burger. [ laughter ] -everyone acts like their parents. -you have a tattoo. -yes. -fun. do you not work? -so, what kind of mower you got, seth? -i don't know. some kid comes over. we pay him to do it. -but it's not all bad. someone even showed us how we can save money by bundling home and auto with progressive. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents. but we can protect your home and auto. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents. etsthe belongings to finwe hold on to.s. etsy knows that moments, big and small, deserve things that really matter. sold by real people and filled with things that last beyond the latest trends. belongings don't just show what we care about. they show who we are. shop etsy.com

hi mrs. carmen! hey theo. cop: onstar, i have the stolen vehicle in sight. [police sirens] cop: onstar, slow it down. onstar advisor: mr. grantham, this is onstar. the police have your vehicle. mr. grantham: thank you so much.

at to cover the essentialsyou thehave in retirement,ehicle. as well as all the things you want to do. because when you're ready for what comes next, the only direction is forward.

>> wertheim: stories of exodus mark a central theme in human history. war, famine, crippling poverty: all have forced people to flee one country for another. but there's a growing reason for leaving home and homeland. in more than 70 countries worldwide, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or l.g.b.t., citizens live in fear for their freedom, their safety, and, in some cases, their lives. their governments not only sanction brutality against them, but often carry it out. there is no obvious or easy escape path, but for those lucky enough to hitch a ride, there is something called the rainbow railroad. like the underground railroad, the rainbow railroad helps those fleeing danger get across borders to safety.

and, like its historical namesake, this network shrouds its operations in secrecy. but over a recent six-month period, we got a look at how the rainbow railroad works. we met escapees from three continents, and were on hand for a series of departures and arrivals. last june, on the first day of summer, abanoub elias left his old life in egypt and arrived a refugee at toronto's pearson international airport. >> kimahli powell: you made it. how are you feeling? >> abanoub elias: ouf! >> wertheim: rainbow railroad staff was there to greet him, and on the ride into town, abanoub took it all in. new country, new landmarks. first stop: a familiar face. this reunion was nine months in the making. abanoub and ahmed alaa, two

friends in their 20s, first met in cairo on september 22, 2017. ♪ ♪ the occasion: a concert by mashrou leila, a lebanese band, popular throughout the middle east, whose lead singer is openly gay. caught up in the music and the moment, abanoub did the unthinkable for a gay egyptian. he raised the rainbow flag, a symbol of gay pride. ahmed spotted this bold stranger in the crowd of 35,000, and says he was inspired. >> ahmed alaa: he can do it, so i can do it too. >> wertheim: this was unthinkable to you... >> alaa: yeah. >> wertheim: before the concert? >> alaa: so when i saw abanoub, "oka c >> wertheim: the two waved the flag together. you said it was the best five minutes of your life? >> alaa: yeah. it was the best five minutes of my life. in the bad situation in egypt, you can't talk about anything. now, you are raising the flag. you are talking about l.g.b.t. rights. oh my god. you can't talk about that in egypt, in public-- public area.

>> wertheim: in egypt, just being openly gay can bring trouble. human rights watch says 300 l.g.b.t. citizens have been detained under the country's debauchery laws in the last five years. hours after the concert, egyptian media denounced the flag-raising, and security forces took the opportunity to crack down on cairo's l.g.b.t. community, arresting dozens. panicked, ahmed posted this video to social media to get his story on the record. >> wertheim: "it's clear to me that i am wanted by the police," he said. he was arrested days later for "promoting immorality." police also questioned him about a woman named farida. they're interrogating you, and they know about farida? >> alaa: yeah. the first name. the first name was farida. >> wertheim: farida abo aouf, a trans-woman and well-known l.g.b.t. rights worker in cairo, got word police were asking

about her, and knew she had to leave egypt. she took this video the night she escaped. she says she couldn't risk being recognized along the way, so she cut her hair and took shots of testosterone to look more masculine again. farida told us she almost didn't make it past cairo's airport officials, who pulled her aside for questioning. >> farida abo aouf: and he looked to me like he knows something, but he didn't tell me. >> wertheim: you think the guard knew? >> abo aouf: he knows. >> wertheim: something was up? >> abo aouf: yeah, yeah. he looked to my eyes, eye contact, big eye contact. it's like "i know everything." >> wertheim: farida made it to canada, where rainbow railroad staff was waiting for her, having learned about her situation from their network in egypt. they got her settled in toronto, where she told them about abanoub, who had gone into hiding outside cairo, and ahmed, who was serving three months in solitary confinement. >> abo aouf: i was crying a lot. i told them, "please help my friends. please. they are in jail. can you please help them?" >> wertheim: you're connecting your friends in egypt with rainbow railroad once you're here. >> abo aouf: yeah. yeah.

>> wertheim: founded in 2006 and based in toronto, rainbow railroad has evacuated more than 600 l.g.b.t. individuals from 22 hostile countries. the small, unassuming operation fielded more than a thousand requests for help last year, and says that number will increase this year. >> yeah, i'll need from cairo to toronto. >> wertheim: referrals come from an international network of l.g.b.t. groups and safe houses. then, rainbow railroad secures visas and pays for flights to safety, all of it funded not by any government, but with private donations of cash, and also airline miles. executive director kimahli powell reviews each case. what do they all have in common? >> kimahli powell: the majority of people that we help have told harrowing stories of being hunted down, of being excommunicated by their churches, their families, their communities, and so they've come to us really desperate. >> wertheim: this isn't cultural homophobia. this is police, courts, legislators. >> powell: we've heard stories

of an individual who had a mob go to their house, burn it down, and when they flee to go see the police, the police say that "we cannot help you because you are gay." >> wertheim: the police sanctions the mob. >> powell: the police sanctions the mob. sometimes the police are active perpetrators of this violence. >> wertheim: he's talking about an incident that took place in jamaica, one of 70 countries worldwide where same-sex relations are a crime-- in seven of these countries, punishable by death. the united nations says global gains in l.g.b.t. rights, including marriage equality, have been met with backlash in many parts of the world. ( marching ) perhaps most brutally, in the russian republic of chechnya. its leader has publicly denied the very existence of gay citizens. in april 2017, reports surfaced up, torturing and killing queer chechens. usman-- not his real name-- survived this purge. he asked us to conceal his

identity, fearing for the safety of his family back home. he recalls the day men in military uniform came for him at his work, took him to an abandoned warehouse and tortured him with electric shocks. >> usman ( translated ): they tied my hands behind my back. and they beat me. they kept asking me for names and phone numbers. >> wertheim: names and numbers of whom? >> usman ( translated ): gay men i knew. but i didn't give them anybody's name. >> wertheim: even under torture? >> usman ( translated ): yes. i am very proud of that. >> wertheim: after two weeks, usman was released, and a friend helped get him to a safe house in russia. there, he heard about a means to escape. >> usman ( translated ): rainbow railroad. >> wertheim: that's how you heard it the first time? >> usman: uh-huh. >> wertheim: in their largest operation to date, rainbow railroad worked with canada's foreign ministry to evacuate 42 chechens, including usman,

and find them asylum in canada. a few months later, powell and usman went to the u.s. state department to plead for visas for l.g.b.t. chechens still trying to get out. but this is a tough time to be seeking asylum in america, no longer a busy stop on the rainbow railroad. spain, the netherlands and canada are among the most popular destinations. the chechen operation put rainbow railroad on the map. donations more than tripled, making it possible for staff to venture to half a dozen l.g.b.t.-hostile countries and assess the need in person. we went with kimahli powell to jamaica, well-known for its beaches, less so for its homophobia. >> powell: let me tell you what we can do. >> wertheim: rainbow railroad gets more requests for safe passage from here than from anywhere else. >> powell: this is a gully. unfortunately, like a sewage drain area where members of the

l.g.b.t.q.i. community sleep. >> wertheim: it smells like a sewer system. under the streets of kingston, powell took us to see a potential rainbow railroad client named blue. his fear of being attacked because he is gay is so intense, blue goes underground, quite literally, for refuge overnight. you have this place to yourself? >> blue: this is my house. >> wertheim: this is your house? he told us he sleeps on cardboard boxes, and when the rain comes through the storm drain, he moves to higher ground. >> blue: if i was not gay, i wouldn't be here, because i'd be at home. but because of my lifestyle and they found out about me, that's why i'm here. right? >> wertheim: even powell was taken aback by these conditions. have you seen this in other countries? owell:othing quite like this. once you're labeled l.g.b.t., it's almost like a scarlet letter. like, you walk around and someone can attack you at any moment.

>> wertheim: the threat of attack drives some gay jamaicans to this remote hillside town, where our cameras were allowed into this safe house. many of its residents will be referred to powell, who went over the most urgent cases with house staff. >> powell: the problem is getting to the hospital. >> wertheim: one resident told us he was stabbed 15 times. another said she was doused with acid in an anti-gay attack. this is where they wait for wounds to heal and visas to come through. across the island, the wait is over for elton mcduffus, whose work with a local l.g.b.t. rights group made him a target. he told us he survived a knife attack and an attempted break-in to his apartment, as assailants shouted anti-gay slurs. after that, you said, "i've got to get out. i..." >> elton mcduffus: no, yeah. i got to leave, yeah. >> wertheim: he installed extra locks on the door and contacted rainbow railroad. he didn't tell his mother he was about to leave for good.

>> mcduffus: like, i don't want my mommy to worry, i don't want my family to worry, so i try to keep them out of this process. >> wertheim: so what have you told them? "i'll see you when i see you?" >> mcduffus: yeah, well, i told her, "you're not going to see me for a long time." >> wertheim: nervous? >> mcduffus: very. >> wertheim: why? >> mcduffus: because i'm stepping into the unknown. the only thing i can say is, i am told that i'll be okay. i'll be in a better place, yeah. >> wertheim: you've called the worldwide exile of the l.g.b.t. community the "civil rights issue of our era." what do you mean by that? >> powell: what i mean by that is, we've spent many years in north america saying that marriage equality was the most important marker to-- for the advancement of l.g.b.t. people. what we haven't done is talk about thousands of thousands of displaced people who are victims of state-sponsored violence, only because of who they love. >> wertheim: this is your new town. >> mcduffus: yeah. >> wertheim: four weeks after we watched him leave jamaica, elton

mcduffus had found a taste of home in toronto, and told us he was no longer living in fear. a whole neighborhood with pride flags and gay bookstores. what's it like when you walk around there? >> mcduffus: like i said to my friend, we were walking around church street and there were a lot of gay couples walking and holding hands. and i said, "i think we should hold hands." >> wertheim: you said "we should hold hands?" >> mcduffus: yeah, and we did. and nobody cared and nobody looked. and you know, that was beautiful. >> wertheim: the egyptians too are making the most of their newfound freedom. toronto's pride parade last summer was a highlight. rainbow railroad helped cover living expenses until the asylum claims were decided. ahmed got his papers in march. abanoub's came through last month. ♪ ♪ on this night in september, they were reminded of how far they've come. mashrou leila, the band whose

concert sparked the l.g.b.t. crackdown in cairo, was in toronto to play a show, and wanted to meet the egyptian exiles. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ and when the music played, abanoub and ahmed stood together, just as they had in cairo a year before. >> alaa: when i was in the jail, i know that i will be able to hear this music again. i raise the flag again with abanoub. it was an amazing moment for me. i can do what i want now. i'm safe. >> wertheim: you're safe? >> alaa: yeah, i'm safe. >> cbs money watch, sponsored by lincoln financial, helping you create a secure financial future. >> good evening. president trump and democratic leaders meet for talks wednesday on a $2 trillion infrastructure bill. home depot, lowe's and target report earnings this week. and a poll finds nearly 11

million people may skip work tomorrow following the "game of thrones" finale. i'm elaine quijano, cbs news. this is the story of john smith.

not this john smith. or this john smith. or any of the other hundreds of john smiths that are humana medicare advantage members. no, it's this john smith. who we paired with a humana team member to help address his own specific health needs. at humana, we take a personal approach to your health, to provide care that's just as unique as you are. no matter what your name is. ♪

>> cooper: ten years ago, a mysterious computer programmer invented a new type of money that wasn't backed by any government or kept in any bank. there were no coins or bills, just long strings of letters and numbers stored inside a network of computers that anybody could be a part of, by downloading some free software over the internet. today, that computerized currency, bitcoin, is well- known, though little understood, and bitcoin's popularity has inspired the creation of thousands of other types of digital money, known as "cryptocurrency." over the last decade, you could have made a five-million-percent profit by investing in cryptocurrency. or, you could have lost everything. it has been a wild ride, and few people have experienced the highs and lows more than a 29- year-old named charlie shrem. >> charlie shrem: i felt like i was riding a rocket ship that had no mission control.

you were going up very quickly. but we were not thinking about what would happen when eventually we have to go back down? and, for me, i dealt with the ultimate going back down. >> cooper: you crashed hard? >> shrem: crashed really hard. >> cooper: charlie shrem was once described as the last kid who'd be picked for a game of dodgeball, but he always felt comfortable around computers. he grew up in a syrian jewish community in brooklyn, new york and was a senior at brooklyn college when, in 2011, he started a business in his parent's basement. he called it "bitinstant," because it enabled people to buy bitcoin quickly, using dollars, at a time when interest in the computerized currency was just starting. when did you first notice the business taking off? >> shrem: almost instantly. the business-- >> cooper: that-- really, that fast? >> shrem: i had $1,000 that i threw into it, that was my own money. and then, within days, it was getting crazy. and i had my bar mitzvah money that i wanted to use. >> cooper: within a year, tyler and cameron winklevoss of

facebook fame became major investors in charlie's company. by 2013, he was pronounced one of bitcoin's first millionaires. estimates of his net worth ranged from a few million to $45 million. >> shrem: i went from being a kid who had no self-confidence, to the complete opposite, with a crazy ego. and i was doing, you know, media interviews every day, and i was the evangelizer of the industry. the bitcoin moses, as they would call me. >> cooper: you go from being the last kid picked at dodgeball, to, you know-- >> shrem: running the team. >> cooper: how did charlie and other 20-somethings become kings of a new industry that deals in money you can't deposit in the bank? to understand that, you have to go back to a time when confidence in banks had plummeted. >> anthony masondow tumbled more than 500 points... >> cooper: shortly after the collapse of lehman brothers, during the financial crisis of 2008, this pta circulating on the internet. it proposed creating an "electronic cash system" that would allow people to pay one

another online "without going through a financial institution." to this day, no one has the faintest idea who the paper's author, "satoshi nakamoto" is. but he, or she, or they, created ingenious software that anyone in the world could download onto their computer for free. the computers running the bitcoin software were then able to work together over the internet and perform functions normally handled by banks, like keeping accurate records and guarding against fraud. the computers maintain a constantly updated record of transactions involving bitcoin. the record is called the "blockchain," and it's how the network keeps track of who owns what. one of the most innovative features of the system is that every computer on the network can keep a copy of this record, showing every transaction ever recorded. >> neha narulla: the blockchain's stored on thousands of computers around the world. >> cooper: neha narula is the director of the digital currency initiative at the m.i.t. media lab.

>> narula: the idea behind the blockchain is that it's everywhere. and everyone can look at it and verify it for themselves. and so, what this means is that you get this sense of trust. you get this sense of security, because everyone's watching. >> cooper: if you're wondering what there is to watch, here it is. bitcoin's not much to look at, just letters and numbers. why would people have trust in something that is just numbers and letters? it doesn't have anything backing it up. >> narula: i think to answer that question, you really have to go back to, sort of the roots of money, and what is money. the reason that the $5 bill in my wallet has value is because i know you'll take it from me for something. i can buy a sandwich from you with that $5 bill. >> cooper: so it has value because people believe in it? >> narula: exactly. and that's it. that's really it.t t, bcoin was just ateresting ri hom because his computer was one of the computers helping to

maintain the bitcoin network, satoshi nakamoto's software rewarded hanyecz with some bitcoin. but there wasn't much he could do with it back in 2010. so, he went on an internet chat forum and asked whether anyone would be willing to buy him some pizza in exchange for 10,000 bitcoin. >> laszlo hanyecz: and somebody there said, "hey, i'll-- you know, i'll take you up on that offer." here you can see the original pizzas. and that's my daughter's hand. she was a year old. >> cooper: that pizza obtained with bitcoin by laszlo hanyecz and enjoyed by his daughter nine years ago is believed to be the first real-world transaction involving cryptocurrency. do you feel like, after that, that changed people's perception of it, in a way? >> hanyecz: i think it-- it made it real for some people. i mean, it certainly did for me. >> cooper: in the years that followed, bitcoin caught on. some merchants started accepting it, and it became possible to buy and sell bitcoin for dollars through businesses called exchanges.

as the market price of one bitcoin rose from zero to a dollar to $100 and more, an esoteric experiment grew into a global industry. on a wind-swept plain in iceland, these warehouses are closely guarded at all times. we were asked not to disclose their exact location. this is one of the places where the records, the "blockchains," of crytocurrencies are now kept. state-of-the-art computers work 24/7, performing calculations that safeguard the records. in industry lingo, this is called a "mine." this does not look like any mine i've ever been in. >> marco streng: yes. now this is a mine of a new world. this is the new gold mine. >> cooper: marco streng is the c.e.o. of a company called genesis mining. >> streng: so there's tens of thousands of processing units in here. and if you add all the computing power of all the processing units together, you have more than the world's number one supercomputer.

>> cooper: back in new york, by 2013, charlie shrem had finally moved his company's computers out of his parents' basement. he was spending a lot of time travelling to industry conferences and talking up bitcoin. charlie was charismatic. charlie was funny. but could charlie be trusted to run a business? in a new book, "bitcoin billionaires," ben mezrich describes how bitinstant's biggest investors, the winklevoss twins, grew concerned that their young c.e.o. was spending too much time traveling and partying, and not paying enough attention to the details of running his company. for example: charlie knew the u.s. government was concerned about how cyber-thieves and money-launderers were using bitcoin. his company was required to monitor its customers and report any suspicious activity. banks have whole departments that are supposed to do this. the person at bitinstant who charlie put in charge of it was charlie.

so, you were in charge of making sure that you complied with, with rules and regulations for financial transactions. >> shrem: yes. >> cooper: was that a good idea? >> shrem: no. ( laughter ) very bad idea. ( groaning ) >> cooper: in 2013, charlie had other problems, too. a documentary called "the rise and rise of bitcoin," showed what happened when the price of bitcoin rapidly rose and fell. charlie's company and an exchange it did business with couldn't keep up with customer's orders. >> shrem: people can't buy and sell, and they can't withdraw, and they can't deposit. the whole thing is just a fritz. >> cooper: bitinstant went out of business in july 2013, a victim of bitcoin's volatile landscape and charlie's many mistakes. >> shrem: i look back at myself and i say, "i don't even know if i would do business with myself." >> cooper: essentially you're saying you couldn't be trusted then? >> shrem: 100%. >> cooper: six months later, in january 2014, he was returning from a trip abroad when he got stopped at passport control in kennedy airport. >> shrem: i got surrounded and--

by a whole pupu platter of federal agents. and-- >> cooper: a pupu platter, of federal agents. >> shrem: yeah, like all mixtry of d.e.a., i.r.s., n.y.p.d., j.f.k. security-- you had all of them. >> cooper: federal agents had evidence that charlie knew one of his customers was buying bitcoin and then re-selling it on a website where it was used to buy illegal drugs. >> shrem: when i got arrested, the first thing i told my lawyer is, "i'm guilty. let's make a deal." because i knew immediately that i had done what they said i did. >> cooper: one of bitcoin's first millionaires was now one of its first felons. but that didn't stop the market price of bitcoin from rising from about $250 when charlie went to prison in 2015, to nearly $20,000 at the end of 2017. it then plunged 84%, before climbing back to more than $8,000 this past week. remember: a bitcoin was worth less than a penny when laszlo

hanyecz first traded bitcoin for pizza nine years ago. we calculated that if hanyecz had held onto all the bitcoin he used back then to get various items, much of it pizza, by the time of our interview, those bitcoins would have been worth: $800 million. >> hanyecz: yeah. >> cooper: so-- okay. sorry, let me just get this straight. you spent about $800 million on pizza? >> hanyecz: well, if you look at today's exchange rate. >> cooper: are there nights you wake up, like, in a cold sweat, where you think-- "i could have had $800 million if i hadn't bought those pizzas?" >> hanyecz: i think thinking like that is-- is not really good for me. >> cooper: there's a long list of financial leaders who think bitcoin's not good for anyone. lael brainard, one of the governors of the federal reserve, agreed to speak with us because she wanted to make sure ordinary investors understand the risks of cryptocurrency. there are people who say that cryptocurrency-- it's better than real currency because it's not controlled by any government and it means it's not subject to

manipulation by central bankers like you, no offense. >> lael brainard: the u.s. currency has a whole set of legal protections around it. the federal reserve, and ultimately the u.s. treasury, stand behind it. and when you hold your dollars in a bank account, you have deposit insurance. >> cooper: and that doesn't exist with cryptocurrencies? >> brainard: none of those accountability mechanisms exist for bitcoin. >> cooper: charlie shrem spent a year in prison. when he got out, the man once described as "bitcoin moses" worked in a restaurant, parting seas of dirty dishes for $8 an hour. but like bitcoin, charlie shrem three years after getting out of prison, he's living very he told us he's made money blogging, consulting, and investing in cryptocurrency, and is now captain of his own destiny. he's even got a boat, named "satoshi," after bitcoin's mysterious creator.

after watching this, you may be wondering why the world needs cryptocurrencies. neha narula of m.i.t.'s digital currency initiative argues, they can make a difference. >> narula: the thing that excites me about cryptocurrencies is that we can experiment with the transfer of value. we can put new features into money. we can change the way money works. >> cooper: she says cryptocurrency has already helped people in countries like venezuela, where the monetary system is in crisis. and in the future, it may be able to do things like speed up and lower the cost of worldwide money transfers. >> narula: people used to say, "why do we need email? i can just call someone on the phone." and now, we can't live without it. >> cooper: so this is one of those conversations that, 20 years from now, someone could replay, and have a good laugh because i'm asking such moronic questions that will be so obvious to everybody?>>ula: or e laughing at me because i said cryptocurrencies were going to be a thing, and they totally flamed out and died.

>> cooper: it still could go either way. >> narula: it could really go either way. it's-- that's what makes it so exciting and interesting. >> where in the world is satoshi nakamoto, bitcoin's mysterious inventor? go to 60minutesovertime.com sponsored by pfizer. like an "unjection™". xeljanz xr. a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough. xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma have happened. as have tears in the stomach or intestines, seand olesrol levels.tions,es don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. your doctor should perform blood tests before

and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you've been somewhere fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. needles. fine for some things. but for you, one pill a day may provide symptom relief. ask your doctor about xeljanz xr. an "unjection™". will it feel like the wheend of a journey?p working, or the beginning of something even better? when you prepare for retirement with pacific life, you can create a lifelong income... so you have the freedom to keep doing whatever is most meaningful to you. a reliable income that lets you retire, without retiring from life. that's the power of pacific. ask your financial professional about pacific life today.

>> kroft: we end tonight's broadcast on a personal note. after 50 years in journalism, 40 years at cbs news, and 30 years at "60 minutes"-- it doesn't seem possible-- i have decided to retire. it's been a difficult decision, one that i've considered at the

end of each of the past four seasons. now feels like the right time. as my good friend and colleague, morley safer, advised me a few days before he passed away, "don't stay too long." there are still some things i'd like to do that i haven't done. i'm not getting any younger. i want to leave while i still have all of my marbles, the energy to enjoy life, and the curiosity to pursue some different things. i've done nearly 500 stories for this broadcast, and that has taken up most of the past 30 years of my life. it's been a tremendously rewarding experience, and i want to thank you for watching what is still the best news program on television. i also want to thank everyone here at "60 minutes," past and present, and especially the producers, cameramen, and video editors that i have collaborated with over the years. they never get enough credit. i'm not going away just yet. i'll be around this summer, and there will be a special in september featuring some of my favorite stories. i'm steve kroft.

we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." ♪ anna? did you make two identical purchases of $104 at cut and cloth? ♪ capital one knows life doesn't update you so, meet eno, the capital one assistant that catches things that might look wrong, and helps you fix them. another way capital one is watching out for your money,

when you're not. what's in your wallet? ♪ captioning funded by cbs and ford.

we go further, so you can. captioned y media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org previously on "the red line"... i knew you weren't ready, but i wanted you so badly. [ amplified voice ] dwayne boden served time in prison when he took the fall for the son of a powerful man. there's an old saying in chicago politics-- "do unto others before they do unto you." be prepared to meet that "unto." ms. young, care to comment on the news that you're jira calder-brennan's mother? we were called to a robbery in progress. mr. brennan did not turn or raise his hands when prompted. procedure dictates i use deadly force. [ voice breaking ] you shot him, and you let him bleed to death on the floor. [ diego and wife speaking spanish ] i want paul evans to suffer. man on radio: cook county state's attorney amanda sharp will convene a grand jury to indict paul evans in the shooting of dr. har-- [ groans loudly ]