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Earlier this year, the BTC-e cryptocurrency popular exchange was withdrawn by the authorities, following the arrest of 38-year-old Alexander Vinnik, a Russian, Greece, for allegedly laundering $ 4 billion of ill-gotten bitcoins. Vinnik was considered a "BTC-e operator" and his legal future is now plunged into turmoil.
Following the arrest of Vinnik, and considering that the BTC-e domain had been seized, users began to believe that their funds had been seized by the authorities and reacted quickly by creating a change.org petition to get their money back. It was also revealed that the exchange was fined $ 110 million, and that employees of a company called Mayzus Financial Services Ltd had been arrested for having been linked to the "flow of money." 39 "illegal" money.
By the time a BTC-e administrator informed Bitcointalk and Twitter users of the trading situation, he revealed that they controlled over 55% of the users' funds and that the The remaining 45% would be repaid by a Bitfinex token. The exchange was then relaunched as World Exchange Services (WEX) and users were made aware of the current situation.
WEX stated that it had actually received digital assets from BTC-e, but no fiat balances or financial obligations. He also updated users on the Bitfinex token situation:
"Previously, it was reported that the conversion will occur in the ratio of 55% (balances) and 45% (tokens) .On the launch date, the ratio of 61.79% (Fiat and crypto) and 38.21% (tokens) became possible. "
In the past, the company said that "the funds will be returned to everyone." Recently, however, several WEX users have stated that the money they 've deposited in the exchange is apparently stuck in limbo, as two companies tell them the other one has the funds.
On Bitcointalk, users claim that, earlier this month, WEX began verifying the identity of currency holders to repay them while complying with AML / KYC regulations. As a result of the process, users received an email to which CCN had access, telling them to contact a third party who would have managed their financial transactions and likely controlled the funds: a company called Money Polo.
Money Polo, as stated on the company's website, is a registered trademark of Mayzus Financial Services, the company in which certain employees would have been arrested after the seizure of the BTC-e.
After contacting the company, users learned that Money Polo had received their money and credited it to the BTC-e, which now seems to escape the situation, as it is now the case of WEX, an exchange that claimed to accept any form of financial obligations ex-BTC-e. "
"We must know: where is the money?"
In an attempt to obtain either WEX or Money Polo to further clarify the situation, users contacted these two companies in all possible ways, but until then only got the same answers.
In an organized attempt to recover their money, users began contacting various organizations, including Interpol, Europol and FinCEN. Until now, only the Financial Ombudsman replied that he had contacted the companies giving them two months to provide a satisfactory answer.
A user told CCN that he hoped that other victims would come. He added:
"We filed complaint on the website of several authorities.We need to know: where is the money? Who blocked the money? What should you do to unlock?
Another user said he had deposited nearly $ 115,000 between July 21 and 24, just before the BTC-e was seized by the FBI. Yet he dismissed the possibility that the US government controls the funds because no information can be found on the legal documents. He also pointed out that, if given the opportunity, he would prove that the money had been obtained legally.
Affected users told CCN that they had contacted their banks to try to recover their funds or find out what had happened to them. They were told that Mayzus Financial Services had received the funds and refused to send them back.
A user told CCN that he believed that BTC-e was selectively scamming some users, so only a few are unhappy and end up giving up their cause after a few weeks. He declared:
"This is a selective scam: 1) they swindle some customers; 2) customers complain for a while; 3) most give up after a few weeks; 4) easy profit. They have always done that … but now they have the ideal situation to earn a lot of money. "
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