HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth) is a biannual conference sponsored by 2600: The Hacker Quarterly that consists of lectures of interest to the hacker world.
Originally the conferences were always held in New York at the Hotel Pennsylvania. In 2008, the hotel was facing demolition so 2600 labeled the conference that year the Last HOPE.
One of the speakers at Last HOPE was Doug Spink, who gave a lecture on holding companies that 2600 posted on youtube. That video is below. In attending the conference, Spink was violating the conditions of his supervised release.
Coincidentally, also at the Last HOPE was former CIA case officer and lunatic conspiracy theorist, Robert Steele. Steele is a friend of Neal Rauhauser who worked on Spink’s Cryptostorm.
Anyway, Spink was arrested on April 14th, 2010 and sent back to prison.
And happily, a campaign to save the Hotel Pennsylvania was successful and HOPE has continued. The Eleventh HOPE will be July 22-24. You can find out more about that event here
Among the speakers appearing with Spink at Last Hope was Robert Steele. He’s become a regular on the Right Wing Fringe circuit. He believe every act of terrorism in the US is a false flag…this includes Sandy Hook. He claims the slaughter of the children was all staged.