Bitcoin Forum

bitfinex asked me to do a complete verification after I lost access to my account a while ago.
I submitted all my documents and got verified.

my account contains over 500+ BTC ,acquired a couple years ago.
I have full access to my electrum wallet where all incoming transfers were issued from.

now they sent me the following by email:


*************************************************************************
Hello 'my name'
....
Please provide a police report for the compromised Bitfinex account and compromised email address. If you do not have this, you will need to file one still. Send us the report and the contact details of the responsible Law Enforcement investigator.

Please disable the VPN connection and access your account using your own internet connection.

We will need you to have your ID documents verified by a Notary Public. The Notary Public has to verify your identity, and he or she needs to provide a signed and dated statement in which he or she will confirm:
1). Your full name, date of birth, and place of birth.
2). Your current address.
3). That, the person appearing before her or him, is the same person as an official ID / Passport is presented for;
4). That the Passport / ID presented is authentic and valid.
5) That the document is provided in order to confirm you are the owner of Bitfinex account xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx

The document will need to contain the contact details of the Notary Public. Send a scanned version of the notarial document in an attachment in a reply to this email.

If you used cash to purchase the BTC, we will need to receive a proof of source of funds for the funds used to purchase the BTC.
A proof of sources of funds is any (collection of) document(s) that explains the origin of funds used for purchases of crypto currencies.

Examples of acceptable forms of documentary evidence are detailed below:

Personal savings

   Personal bank statement(s) demonstrating deposit/gifted monies

Employment income

   Personal bank statement(s) demonstrating deposit monies, wages and tax statement

Gift or inheritance from a third party

   Documentary evidence from the donor (bank statement), copy of will

Sale of investments

   Statement from investment provider or bank statement showing settlement from investment provider

Sale of property

   Signed letter from Solicitor/Advocate or Estate Agent or Contract of Sale statement

Loan

   Loan agreement or statement

Insurance Claims

   Letter from Insurance provider

Dividends or profit from the company

   Latest audited company accounts statement

Lottery/Gambling win

   Evidence from the lottery company/winning receipt

Cryptocurrency mining    Details on the mining pool used combined with blockchain transaction IDs and addresses that confirm when the assets were mined.

Please provide a full description of Blockchain Transaction IDs of the individual purchases and addresses of where the purchased BTC were received on. Provide transaction IDs and addresses that describe exactly how the BTC bought with cash were transferred from the original addresses up to the point they were deposited to Bitfinex.

Kind regards,

xxxxx
Bitfinex.com
support@bitfinex.com


*************************************************************************




Are they allowed to request all these information's from me?
I can file a police report and get my documents notarized
-but I maybe have trouble to provide detailed transaction data from the past when I purchased my bitcoins with cash locally.
I may not be able to recover this data, except my electrum wallet data.

any advice?

Wow, they really want to make the process as impossibly difficult as possible, putting up wall after wall after wall for you to scale and go through. And tall well-greased walls they are.

For 500 btc I would comply. Do all you can to give them what they want. For anything else you can’t provide, draft an explanation in legalese language and engage reputable lawyers to prepare these documents with their official letterhead on every page.

To maximize your chance of a successful retrieval of your coins I strongly advise and suggest that you let lawyers handle the communication work with Bitfinex.

title: " Bitfinex locked my 500 BTC account and is asking for police report "


Name: whyisthishappening
Posts: 1
Activity: 1
Merit: 0
Position: Newbie
Date Registered: March 26, 2018, 05:32:59 PM
Last Active: Today at 08:11:37 AM

This is a very interesting story, I confess that when I read this title I said wow what the hell is the thread I'm reading? so I read your story many times and some things I did not understand (I'm sorry, I'm a dumb dude)


So years ago you bought 500 btc? right?

I suppose that also years ago you sent 500 btc to bitfinex, was that it? or recently you sent 500 btc to bitfinex?

hum for all history to be clearer:

500 btc is something like 3,985,842.29 USD.

So you deposited $ 3,985,842.29 in an exchange? Is that what you want to tell us? and to make matters worse where your story becomes stranger is that you deposited 500 btc in bitfinex without your bitfinex account being verified account

because according to this

if your account was verified they would not ask you to verify your account again and how could it be possible that you had lost a password for an account that contained 500 btc and only today that you come to complain?


as I said: its history is very interesting.


hire a lawyer and report your case to the police

https://www.bitfinex.com/team

Bitfinex

Founded: 2012, Hong Kong
Headquarters: Hong Kong
Founders: Raphael Nicolle, Giancarlo Devasini

-the 500 BTC were acquired a couple years ago
-they were deposited 2015 into bitfinex
-bitfinex account , wanted to use it only to sell&buy BTC online, no bank withdraws
-I also used funds from my friends to buy bitcoins with cash locally

the difficult part is how I can prove the cash I used was obtained legitimately,if I also took money
from friends to buy BTC with cash?

I have access to my electrum wallet and to the transactions I did years ago
but no papers about cash withdraws and my friends investments...

Simple lesson to be learnt again here, regardless what really happened, never leave any coins on any exchange.

Did you arrange those trades through localbitcoins?

This is what's hard on personal loans, it's typically not documented  :'(

I'm not sure about this but maybe both parties could still make a loan agreement even if the loan's already over, is it though?.
Anyway, you can try asking bitfinex regarding that matter, explain that it's a personal loan etc.. ask them if it's still okay to make the agreement?
And yeah don't forget to also ask if you could DIY that or is it still needed to consult a lawyer.

i didn't realize that bitfinex had taken bullshit KYC to bitstamp's level. source of funds? bitch, please! it would be one thing if they locked your account because of a law enforcement inquiry. since your inability to log in triggered this, it looks more like they are just making it unreasonably difficult to recover your funds.


either there is some miscommunication, or i am missing something.

why are they treating this as a compromised account? you're not saying your account was hacked (and funds stolen), so why are they asserting that and requiring a police report?

I think it must have something to do with this.


From reading the email Bitfinex sent they are not convinced the OP is the rightful owner of the account. If I'm reading the OP correctly they are either trying to recover a hacked account/lost password or they did that earlier and now Bitfinex has become suspicious about it.

What is a reason for not taking out your coins for so long time from this exchange?

Last year prices were so high so you never really try to take out any of the coins from your account?



Many people said this many times on this forum but still, we see now and then this kind of issues. Not sure why people use exchanges like a wallet to store coins.

Bitfinex is one of the exchanges that do p2p margin lending. You could easily get a return of 10-20% pa on your coins if you invested them there.

Sounds like you're actually under investigation of some sort. Could be federal... be very careful with how you proceed. Obviously a transaction of that amount would need to be properly verified. If everything was ok you should be able to comply no problems. The fact that you can't give records on where you obtained 3 million dollars is alarming. You say you borrowed money for the bitcoins in 2015... wasn't that at least 100k for 500 btc back then? This is sus.

500 BTC was not wroth 3mil USD a couple years ago.


the main question is:

If you used cash to purchase the BTC, we will need to receive a proof of source of funds for the funds used to purchase the BTC.
A proof of sources of funds is any (collection of) document(s) that explains the origin of funds used for purchases of crypto currencies.



I did not use localbitcoins to buy my bitcoins with cash.
I went to a local bar here where bitcoiners met occasionally.

how I can prove the cash I used was obtained legitimately,if I also took money
from friends to buy BTC with cash?

I have access to my electrum wallet and to the transactions I did years ago
but no papers about cash withdraws and my friends investments...

Get a lawyer to write to Bitfinex in legalese language. If you can compile whatever you have (police report, transaction records from your Electrum wallet and maybe notarized affidavits from your friends certifying and explaining the flow of funds from them to you) I'm sure you will have a strong case in your hands.

If you really own the coins, you should assert your ownership and claim rights. There are exchanges which will make the reclaiming of coins as complicated and daunting as possible in the hope that you might give up the chase. There is a chance here that Bitfinex might have identified your account as dormant and added your coins to their revenue coffers. No company on this planet willingly relinquishes assets which explains why they are making the process as challenging as possible for you.

- If you have used cash and face too face deal than tell them this in detail and also include name of the bar where you have purchased it. If you can contact the seller than you can also include their names and details. (you might have to pay some to them).

- Your friends can give you written statement stating he have given those cash to you.

- You can also send those electrum transactions to them.
Ask your friends for his bank statement of the date where he have withdrawn significant amount of cash at the time when you have purchased those bitcoin.

Good luck..

The thing is, the friends you say you got the money from will have to have sources for where they got their money, too. If you say something vague like that it will need to go further into investigation, so there's no point unless you get their tax records to prove they actually could be assumed to be able to give you money like that. So you'll likely need to draw a contract with them saying that you'll pay them a certain amount once you receive your funds back because that's an awful lot of trouble for them to go through for you as well. Signed notary for them as well and all that stuff previously mentioned by another member.

Just play it by the book and you could end up very wealthy if those coins aren't sourced to any illegal activities. If they are, simply trying to claim them will land you into a big deal of trouble. I don't think you realize how far agencies will go to deny terrorist money laundering. Not saying that's what you are doing or did, but that is probably along the line they're thinking.

This sounds like the most reasonable explanation. It is a lot of coin, after all, millions of dollar's worth, so bitfinex is simply covering their asses with this one. To OP, unfortunately, they do have the right to request for verification to prove ownership and identity, it says so in their terms. To what extent, it's difficult to say.

Notary public and all that won't cost you much but I would take the advice of others and just engage a qualified legal practitioner to get all this done for you. Pretty sure they'd do it for a small fee probably less than 1% of that 500 BTC.

Not a terrible cost to pay, considering the sum involved. Why anyone would want to store so much outside a wallet they don't control I wouldn't know....

Even if it really was 3 years ago, that's still enough to not have it in the hands of somebody else. Pretty unbelievable story, and I'm sure Bitfinex isn't buying it either. Also, they mentioned a VPN, so already they suspect it is not the original account owner.

This is quiet odd actually on where OP doesn't have the access on such account. If I do stored up hundreds of BTC's on an exchange account then forgetting its password would really be a dumb thing or almost impossible for a person to be done since it worth millions of dollars and neglecting it is impossible.For now if you are really the owner then theres nothing to worry since you can able to comply on what those things being required.

thanks. it makes more sense in this context. sounds like a tough road ahead for the OP....


it often takes a hard lesson for that to sink in. for years, i knew the risk existed but valued the ability to quickly hedge (and also often preferred holding USD a few years back). i lost a big chunk of my holdings in 2016 to the bitfinex "hack" and didn't take the risk seriously until then.

anyone can give advise if its possible to get my account unlocked?

There is a lot of good advice for you already in the thread.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3204830.msg33352686#msg33352686

That's probably the best way to proceed. Get a lawyer.

can you recommend a cryptocurrency lawyer for this case?

As being said its a couple years ago then probably it would be 2 years or even more which as you anticipated which is really unbelievable because even into those years 500 btc would really be still a big amount.Been wondering on what he would answer if hes being asked on where those bitcoin originated since from the start.If he bought it on exchanges or bought from other users too for now if they asked verifications then you would really need to follow to retrieve those coin if you are really the real owner.Consult a lawyer on which most people are suggesting on here.

can someone recommend a lawyer for this specific case?

One that is local to you. They are always well connected and pass on cases they can't handle to other lawyers that they know specialise in a particular area.

https://craft.co/bitfinex
there are pictures with key members of the company along with their names
with even a 10% bounty from those 500 BTC, and a few broken legs after, I am pretty sure you would get your BTC back
heck, i would offer even 20% just to finish this

500 BTC... engage lawyers. For this amount of money an exchange and their crooked operators will fight tooth and nail to keep the money. I doubt they will make it easy for you to recover your coins.

The best and only way forward is to retain a lawyer with a proven track record in cross-border dispute resolution and/or transnational litigation cases.

a lawyer will cost me a lot of money for this case?

are there lawyers who only get payed by reward if the case is won in my favor?

That depends what country you are in. Here in the UK, there are many lawyers that work on a no win no fee basis. We also have the Citizens Advice Bureaux that can give free legal advice. If you have anything similar where you are they would probably be a better source of information than an internet forum.

There's a Telegram channel I used before when I got locked on Bitfinex. They helped me but there's a 90% chance that you will have to make a General Power of Attorney for them. Contact thier admins. one of them is a lawyer

https://t.me/Deep1337

You have 500 BTC stuck in exchange which are currently worth 3,837,000$, and you only think how will some lawyer cost you a lot?How much is lot for you,100 000$,300 000$ or more?But if this is only way to get that coins back you do not have to think too much.

Try to find a lawyer in your country,in the first place for easier communication,and if you do not succeed in that obviously you will need foreign assistance.Second best option is to find Chinese lawyer,just because Bitfinex is Hong Kong based company.

Try to use search engine for cryptocurrency lawyer//I just find this one: Cryptocurrency Lawyers (https://www.lawtrades.com/legal-services/other-legal-services/cryptocurrency-lawyers/)

What a weird issue you ve been through and also you care about the cost of the lawyer. Go find a lawyer immediately, I hope you ll get your money back.