a bad, bad bad thought I had about Sheep and BTC-E

[EuroTrash]

The Sheep is (was) an online anonymous marketplace for drugs. The owner is Czech. The site is down, so I am told.
There is evidence that 96000 coins have been stolen from it and the thieves are still trying to launder them through tumblers¹.
To me 96000 coins are a bit too much for an online drug marketplace. Who in their own mind would keep so many coins in the hands of some website run by anonymous people? Oh, wait. BTC-E owners are also unknown.
BTC-E use a Czech payment processor².
BTC-E is having many withdrawal issues recently.

See what I did here?

EDIT: just to clarify - if you think I am implying "all Czech people are thieves" - then please don't. Some of my best friends are from Czech Republic.

1. http://www.coindesk.com/sheep-marketplace-track-stolen-bitcoins/
2. http://www.coindesk.com/btc-e-exchange-banking-issues/

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[TheFootMan]

The evidence presented here is not exactly overwhelming. You need to dig up something better.

I had no issue with a withdrawal yesterday (btc). Perhaps some needs manual confirmation (if they're big), perhaps there was some problems with outgoing e-mails on btc-e's side, perhaps withdrawal confirmation e-mails will not be sent out before coins are transferred to hot wallet from cold wallets, there could be many explanations. Are there any that have not received the coins they try to withdraw, even after a long waiting time?

Is there any organized effort to gather information about this?

[EuroTrash]

Funny twist of the story. It turns out the coins stolen from the Sheep were actually moved to a BTC-E account, although the reason seems to be because the thief transferred them to BTC-E straightaway.

http://www.reddit.com/r/SheepMarketplace/comments/1s2upf/the_sheep_market_scam_address_does_not_actually/

[jballs]

I cannot fathom how anyone sends large amounts of money to an anonymous exchange in a sketchy part of the world.

I find this the most baffling and implausible aspect of bitcoin. Whether or not there is any intentional scheming going on, everybody has their price. How many billions will any of these exchanges stack up before they decide to pull up stakes and disappear? What recourse would anyone have?