BTC-e still down, Russian arrested in Greece

[SONG GEET]

I read the article, and I feel  happy I didn't trust that site with my bitcoin. Let's hope though the bad persons will be punished and the good person won't.
This is a lot of BTC we are dealing with!

Same here, I haven't stored anything there before and other than just few small trades I haven't done any big one there in past too.

https://www.xbtce.com/?type=exchange might also shut down because I think btc-e owner have some connection with this one .

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[Serpens66]

If it is really the btc-e guy and if the authorities get the money/cryptos from btc-e, are they forced to pay it back to btc-e users?

I don't think the authorities will be able to get any money from btc-e - they appear to be moving their servers. Also - in the event the Feds actually manage to seize btc-e - people would have to prove they own accounts before being able to access them. What are the chances of that?

Let's see..
normally authorities should be smart enough to first freeze bank accounts/okpay/moneypolo, before arresting them...
If they did not and btc-e was able to withdraw also all the FIAT/change it into BTC then the authorities are the dumpest guys ever... (even if not they are dump, cause they will be the reason why everyone will at least loose their btc..)
So at least fiat could be possible...

[karan1498]

authorities should return peoples money

[marky89]

If it is really the btc-e guy and if the authorities get the money/cryptos from btc-e, are they forced to pay it back to btc-e users?

I don't think the authorities will be able to get any money from btc-e - they appear to be moving their servers. Also - in the event the Feds actually manage to seize btc-e - people would have to prove they own accounts before being able to access them. What are the chances of that?

Let's see..
normally authorities should be smart enough to first freeze bank accounts/okpay/moneypolo, before arresting them...
If they did not and btc-e was able to withdraw also all the FIAT/change it into BTC then the authorities are the dumpest guys ever... (even if not they are dump, cause they will be the reason why everyone will at least loose their btc..)
So at least fiat could be possible...

Indeed, but it's not clear how much would be kept in their Okpay/Moneypolo accounts. Maybe not much. They have bank accounts in Mongolia, and I don't know if the US authorities can execute warrants there.

Isn't it strange that the authorities did not announce seized funds in the press release (like they always do)? Is it because the bank accounts they were able to seize were worthless, and they couldn't get any crypto? Or are they just slow rolling us all?

[RamBahadur.Gurung]

The good thing is that the prices quickly rebounded after declining by as much as 5% once the news of his arrest came out. This means that there is strong support for BTC right now, with hours to go for the big event on August 1. BTW, I was saddened by the news of his arrest. Alexander Vinnik was a much respected member within the Bitcoin society. But if he had links with the Mt Gox robbery, then I will never support him.

[karan1498]

seems he was involved in alphabay or was in contact with owner of alphabay and that led him arrested.

[orarider]

BTC-e down for over 24 hours.  One of the owners went by Alexander.

Possibly related, 1h ago:

Greece detains Russian Alexander Vinnik for bitcoin 'fraud'

ATHENS, July 26 (Reuters) - A Russian arrested in Greece on suspicion of running a money laundering operation through a bitcoin platform is 38 year old Alexander Vinnik, police sources said on Wednesday.

Greek police earlier said the suspect, who was picked up on a U.S. warrant, was thought to have used bitcoin to launder 'at least' $4 billion earned through illicit activities.

BTC-e is being discontinued, it is being investigated in detail, money laundering is a big crime in all countries, so I bet that a lot of people are panicked. They will lose a lot of money when BTC-e is locked.

[BitHodler]

authorities should return peoples money

That's how it should be, but I very much doubt people will ever see anything of their money back. It all depends on whether US authorities mark that complete exchange as criminal platform or not.

If they do mark it as criminal platform in its entirety, people will never see anything back, from where every altcoin and every penny in fiat will be in full ownership of the big and mighty USA.

At some point they will end up liquidating their crypto assets in form of one or various auctions. In other words, people are robbed of more than $1 billion in total ~ easy gain for the US government.

[karan1498]

That's how it should be, but I very much doubt people will ever see anything of their money back. It all depends on whether US authorities mark that complete exchange as criminal platform or not.

If they do mark it as criminal platform in its entirety, people will never see anything back, from where every altcoin and every penny in fiat will be in full ownership of the big and mighty USA.

At some point they will end up liquidating their crypto assets in form of one or various auctions. In other words, people are robbed of more than $1 billion in total ~ easy gain for the US government.

this is so much sad man!

they've  got a reason , but they cannot take innocent peoples money! or who knows whose innocent ?

damn cruel world

[pizamoi]

That's how it should be, but I very much doubt people will ever see anything of their money back. It all depends on whether US authorities mark that complete exchange as criminal platform or not.

If they do mark it as criminal platform in its entirety, people will never see anything back, from where every altcoin and every penny in fiat will be in full ownership of the big and mighty USA.

At some point they will end up liquidating their crypto assets in form of one or various auctions. In other words, people are robbed of more than $1 billion in total ~ easy gain for the US government.

this is so much sad man!

they've  got a reason , but they cannot take innocent peoples money! or who knows whose innocent ?

damn cruel world

Assuming the police have the private keys they will most likely make some kind of claims form otherwise they will be stuck dealing with civil court cases for a decade.

They aren't going to just steal peoples money unless they can prove that each of those people were doing something illegal.

[blade87]

Assuming the police have the private keys they will most likely make some kind of claims form otherwise they will be stuck dealing with civil court cases for a decade.

They aren't going to just steal peoples money unless they can prove that each of those people were doing something illegal.

A claims form just seems inefficient. They'll just deal with doing that for a decade instead. After they do their investigation, if they do have possession of everything, they should open up frozen exchange copy for some time, let people withdraw whatever they've got on there. They can then auction off whatever isn't withdrawn. It should be obvious which accounts were simply just trading, versus those potentially laundering money. A relatively simple algorithm could make that decision.

[JL421]

I see that btc-e is everywhere in the news and i see the owner has been arrested for stealing so many funds from the 2011 exchange and involved in many money laundering and drug dealings , the us authorities claim to shut down the site don't think anytime soon we are gonna see btc-e to resuming maybe all investors is game over for you

[karan1498]

485705 eth were transferred from btc-e 10 hours ago to some other address which could be feds or theirs safe wallet

[Ted E. Bare]

BTC-e update (Google translated):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2075551.0

Update5! Important! 08/09/2017

Exit from the current situation with the arrested Fiat:

1. Last 14 days we were engaged in struggle for your means, it was possible to gain control over 55% of funds (depends on the course), the remaining 45% are arrested funds, the most part in fiat. As the arrest is withdrawn from the accounts, the amount will decrease.

2. What is the way out of the current situation we see:
2.1. Work under the current BTC-e brand is not possible due to unresolved issues from the Office of Financial Crimes of the US Treasury.
2.2. At the moment, we are negotiating with a group of investors (an investment company), about buying and prompt launch of the service and repaying debts to customers. Further, the process of repayment of debt obligations will be described in more detail.
2.3. After we transfer all balance sheets of the investment company, we will recalculate the balance sheets.
2.4. The conversion procedure, taking into account the available 55% of funds:
2.4.1. All liabilities for fiat (USD, EUR, RUR) will be transferred to BTE tokens (1 BTE is 1 USD) at the exchange rate on the date of conversion. Probably, for more operative closing of promissory notes, ICO will be held on BTE tokens.
2.4.2. If you have on the balance the amount in koin, then you will be written off 45% of the balance of coins and credited with 45% of BTE (1 BTE is 1 USD). At the exchange rate on the day of conversion.
2.4.3. If you have a balance in BTE, then you will be credited with 45% in koin (the amount will be divided into 7 different coins equally BTC, LTC, NMC, NVC, PPC, ETH, DSH) and write off the amount of 45% in BTE.
2.4.4. Upon all recalculations, all users will have the opportunity to withdraw 55% of their funds from the system.
2.5. The investment company works in compliance with KYC, AML and the licenses required for this activity, so all users will need to undergo verification.
2.6. Tentative start dates end of August.

3. All debt obligations will be closed primarily from operating income from the investment company's commission, as well as from the funds we plan to sue from those who illegally arrested them.

The closing of the debt will be based on the principle of buying BTE tokens from the market.

The next update will provide more details on the procedure for accessing information on your balance sheet and when these funds can be withdrawn.

From the BTC-e team we officially inform that all the funds that were in the reserve fund (including all our income) were transferred to pay off the debts.

P.S. A warning! The cases of posting fake links on allegedly our new domain have become more frequent. All official information about our service is placed only in our twitter and from our official account on the forum.

Sincerely, BTC-e team

[aardvark15]

BTC-e down for over 24 hours.  One of the owners went by Alexander.

Possibly related, 1h ago:

Greece detains Russian Alexander Vinnik for bitcoin 'fraud'

ATHENS, July 26 (Reuters) - A Russian arrested in Greece on suspicion of running a money laundering operation through a bitcoin platform is 38 year old Alexander Vinnik, police sources said on Wednesday.

Greek police earlier said the suspect, who was picked up on a U.S. warrant, was thought to have used bitcoin to launder 'at least' $4 billion earned through illicit activities.

I'm lucky I stopped using BTC-e a few years ago but I transferred my coins from there to Cryptsy which didn't end well either. I ended losing most of that anyway. These exchanges are high risk and this is another reason why we need to be careful and not keep many Bitcoins on them. Even good ones can get hacked and there's no way to get it back.

[lumeire]

BTC-e down for over 24 hours.  One of the owners went by Alexander.

Possibly related, 1h ago:

Greece detains Russian Alexander Vinnik for bitcoin 'fraud'

ATHENS, July 26 (Reuters) - A Russian arrested in Greece on suspicion of running a money laundering operation through a bitcoin platform is 38 year old Alexander Vinnik, police sources said on Wednesday.

Greek police earlier said the suspect, who was picked up on a U.S. warrant, was thought to have used bitcoin to launder 'at least' $4 billion earned through illicit activities.

I'm lucky I stopped using BTC-e a few years ago but I transferred my coins from there to Cryptsy which didn't end well either. I ended losing most of that anyway. These exchanges are high risk and this is another reason why we need to be careful and not keep many Bitcoins on them. Even good ones can get hacked and there's no way to get it back.

Which is why we always go back to the golden rule in this space, don't leave your money on exchanges!

[Kronos21]

BTC-e down for over 24 hours.  One of the owners went by Alexander.

Possibly related, 1h ago:

Greece detains Russian Alexander Vinnik for bitcoin 'fraud'

ATHENS, July 26 (Reuters) - A Russian arrested in Greece on suspicion of running a money laundering operation through a bitcoin platform is 38 year old Alexander Vinnik, police sources said on Wednesday.

Greek police earlier said the suspect, who was picked up on a U.S. warrant, was thought to have used bitcoin to launder 'at least' $4 billion earned through illicit activities.

I'm lucky I stopped using BTC-e a few years ago but I transferred my coins from there to Cryptsy which didn't end well either. I ended losing most of that anyway. These exchanges are high risk and this is another reason why we need to be careful and not keep many Bitcoins on them. Even good ones can get hacked and there's no way to get it back.

Any exchange transactions associated with the risk. Especially if the owners of these resources are the Russian. Russia is a poor country with big ambitions so among them are a large number of highly qualified hackers and fraudsters.

[Prem.Soorajpaul]

I'm lucky I stopped using BTC-e a few years ago but I transferred my coins from there to Cryptsy which didn't end well either. I ended losing most of that anyway. These exchanges are high risk and this is another reason why we need to be careful and not keep many Bitcoins on them. Even good ones can get hacked and there's no way to get it back.

It is not advisable to keep your coins in any of the exchanges, no matter how much trustworthy and reliable they seems to be. For example, BTC-e was in operation ever since 2011. No one expected them to close down.

[btc_angela]

BTC-e update (Google translated):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2075551.0

Update5! Important! 08/09/2017

Exit from the current situation with the arrested Fiat:

1. Last 14 days we were engaged in struggle for your means, it was possible to gain control over 55% of funds (depends on the course), the remaining 45% are arrested funds, the most part in fiat. As the arrest is withdrawn from the accounts, the amount will decrease.

2. What is the way out of the current situation we see:
2.1. Work under the current BTC-e brand is not possible due to unresolved issues from the Office of Financial Crimes of the US Treasury.
2.2. At the moment, we are negotiating with a group of investors (an investment company), about buying and prompt launch of the service and repaying debts to customers. Further, the process of repayment of debt obligations will be described in more detail.
2.3. After we transfer all balance sheets of the investment company, we will recalculate the balance sheets.
2.4. The conversion procedure, taking into account the available 55% of funds:
2.4.1. All liabilities for fiat (USD, EUR, RUR) will be transferred to BTE tokens (1 BTE is 1 USD) at the exchange rate on the date of conversion. Probably, for more operative closing of promissory notes, ICO will be held on BTE tokens.
2.4.2. If you have on the balance the amount in koin, then you will be written off 45% of the balance of coins and credited with 45% of BTE (1 BTE is 1 USD). At the exchange rate on the day of conversion.
2.4.3. If you have a balance in BTE, then you will be credited with 45% in koin (the amount will be divided into 7 different coins equally BTC, LTC, NMC, NVC, PPC, ETH, DSH) and write off the amount of 45% in BTE.
2.4.4. Upon all recalculations, all users will have the opportunity to withdraw 55% of their funds from the system.
2.5. The investment company works in compliance with KYC, AML and the licenses required for this activity, so all users will need to undergo verification.
2.6. Tentative start dates end of August.

3. All debt obligations will be closed primarily from operating income from the investment company's commission, as well as from the funds we plan to sue from those who illegally arrested them.

The closing of the debt will be based on the principle of buying BTE tokens from the market.

The next update will provide more details on the procedure for accessing information on your balance sheet and when these funds can be withdrawn.

From the BTC-e team we officially inform that all the funds that were in the reserve fund (including all our income) were transferred to pay off the debts.

P.S. A warning! The cases of posting fake links on allegedly our new domain have become more frequent. All official information about our service is placed only in our twitter and from our official account on the forum.

Sincerely, BTC-e team

I also read about this is one website and I think this is a welcome news for those who have funds in BTC-E. I don't know if there are investment funds that are willing to take them in. But I wouldn't be surprise otherwise. I think they are really putting a lot of effort to give back the funds of their customers and to somewhat clear their name because they will definitely go back into the business but with different names. And we don't know if the available funds at 45% can still be recoverable or not. Just sad to see that this had to happened that affects a lot of people globally. Not really safe to put a lot of your funds in an exchange.

[illinest]

I also read about this is one website and I think this is a welcome news for those who have funds in BTC-E. I don't know if there are investment funds that are willing to take them in. But I wouldn't be surprise otherwise. I think they are really putting a lot of effort to give back the funds of their customers and to somewhat clear their name because they will definitely go back into the business but with different names. And we don't know if the available funds at 45% can still be recoverable or not. Just sad to see that this had to happened that affects a lot of people globally. Not really safe to put a lot of your funds in an exchange.

It seems like good news. But there are a few red flags. They seem to indicate that there will be no fiat processing; that is perfectly understandable. But then they say that KYC verification will be mandatory (unless there was a mis-translation).

Sending ID documents to the anonymous Russian exchange that just got taken down by the FBI? Damn, I can't say this sounds all that tempting....