Mt Gox Trustee Contacts US DOJ! MT Gox Trustee Contacts US DOJ in search of information for Alexander Vinnik, the alleged former operator of BTC-e.
Nobuaki Kobayashi, the Mt. Gox Trustee, has reached out to the United States Department of Justice, revealed in a statement from his office on Oct. 1.
According to the statement from Kobayashi’s office, Kobayashi “has been conducting investigations into whether any BTC or fiat money has disappeared” and “the background thereto if any has disappeared.”
The statement cites the US 2017 indictment of Vinnik as well as the more recent July 2019 civil lawsuit, which reveals that the trustee has reached out to the DOJ through an unnamed US law firm “seeking further information”.
Alexander Vinnik, a Russian national known as “Mr. Bitcoin”, was first indicted by United States authorities – he was detained in Greece in July of 2017. He was charged with Fraud and Mondy Laundering via the crypto exchange BTC-e.
The DOJ’s initial charges had accused Vinnik of masterminding an international money laundering scheme – one that resulted in the processing of over $4 billion dollars worth of capital via BTC-e – this figure also includes the roughly 300,000 BTC that had been stolen from Mt. Gox.
Vinnik is still in Greece, where he is the intense subject of competing extradition requests from Russia, the US, and France.
What do you think? Do you think BTC-e was responsible for a part of Mt Gox’s troubles? Do you think Kobayashi is going to find anything? Let us know what you think on our Facebook page!
