Bitcoin Forum

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/05/reports-liberty-reserve-founder-arrested-site-shuttered/

Reports: Liberty Reserve Founder Arrested, Site Shuttered

The founder of Liberty Reserve, a digital currency that has evolved as perhaps the most popular form of payment in the cybercrime underground, was reportedly arrested in Spain this week on suspicion of money laundering. News of the law enforcement action may help explain an ongoing three-day outage at libertyreserve.com: On Friday, the domain registration records for that site and for several other digital currency exchanges began pointing to Shadowserver.org, a volunteer organization dedicated to combating global computer crime.

According to separate reports in The Tico Times and La Nacion, two Costa Rican daily newspapers, police in Spain arrested Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk, 39, as part of a money laundering investigation jointly run by authorities in New York and Costa Rica.

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Update, May 26, 10:45 p.m. ET: A competitor to Liberty Reserve, a virtual currency called Perfect Money, on Saturday posted a note to its site saying it would no longer accept new registrations from individuals or companies based in the United States. “We bring to your attention that due to changes in our policy we forbid new registrations from individuals or companies based in the United States of America. This includes US citizens residing overseas,” the company wrote. “If you fall under the above mentioned category or a US resident, please do not register an account with us. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.”

So this is why the Bitcoin exchange rates are falling, I guess?

They'll be skyrocketing in a bit.