Intersango Exchange

[phantomcircuit]

So as of September we can't use Intersango any more to buy BTC's basically in the UK?

That sucks and is going to be problematic for a lot of people.

That's the gist of it.

We're actively seeking new banking relationships and investigating other means of doing business in the UK.

Just to be clear this will not effect EUR/PLN/USD transfers and will certainly not be effecting bitcoin transfers.

[kneim]

In Germany, if you dont want the bank to block it, be sure not to transfer more than 400 EUR at once and dont mention "Intersango" and "bitcoin".

Tell me more about this 400 EUR limit.

[2weiX]

I have withdrawn with SEPA 5000€ and more and it was always credited to my bank account the next day.
Now a friend of mine had >15k locked up in SEPA transfer for two weeks without any notification...

I dont think this UK thing is the same issue.

[kneim]

I have withdrawn with SEPA 5000€ and more and it was always credited to my bank account the next day.
Now a friend of mine had >15k locked up in SEPA transfer for two weeks without any notification...

I dont think this UK thing is the same issue.

AML I think. I would never transfer more than 10k at once.

[scribe]

So as of September we can't use Intersango any more to buy BTC's basically in the UK?

That sucks and is going to be problematic for a lot of people.

That's the gist of it.

We're actively seeking new banking relationships and investigating other means of doing business in the UK.

Just to be clear this will not effect EUR/PLN/USD transfers and will certainly not be effecting bitcoin transfers.

Infuriating. But not surprising. Even faintly amusing when British banks are under so much fire for systemic problems anyway.

Will transfers into Intersango be OK up to the end of the month, and will they persist in an Intersango account once the Metro bank account closes?

[MXRider]

EUR/SEPA withdrawals working?

[phantomcircuit]

Will transfers into Intersango be OK up to the end of the month, and will they persist in an Intersango account once the Metro bank account closes?

Transfers into Intersango's Metro account will continue to work until the end of the month.

Funds previously transferred will remain valid.

Likely Metro will give us a check written out to Intersango LTD when the account is closed.

Hopefully that clarifies what's going to happen.

[phantomcircuit]

EUR/SEPA withdrawals working?

Yes, just check https://support.intersango.com/status for the latest information.

It's updated as soon as we know of problems.

[montgolfier]

So what's the easiest way to deposit GBP now?

[muyuu]

So what's the easiest way to deposit GBP now?

Why should there be any problem with deposits? 

[yogi]

I read somewhere that it is possible to make a withdrawal in Euros to a UK bank account.

Is this correct?

[montgolfier]

So what's the easiest way to deposit GBP now?

Why should there be any problem with deposits?  

Oh yeah sorry my bad

Was clicking on the 'add funds' tab to the right of GBP and on the next page filling in the form with my bank details (I've realised now that this is for withdrawals not deposits)

Not very clear for hasty people, would be better if deposits and withdrawals were dealt with on separate pages imo

Just my two cents!

[phantomcircuit]

I read somewhere that it is possible to make a withdrawal in Euros to a UK bank account.

Is this correct?

That is correct.

You just need to get the BIC/SWIFT code and your accounts IBAN from your UK bank.

Then fill our the withdrawal request form on the EUR account page.

(It's mentioned in the announcement on the status page that this is possible.)

[Otoh]

I thought I'd share this PM exchange of today with 'Intersango' as it helps to explain some of the things that were happening earlier this month with their UK bank withdrawals.

Hi,

This account is rarely used. The most reliable way to contact us is the ticketing system. We try to respond readily to tickets and usually we do but there are some backlogs.

I noticed you've had some previous posts about your payments going from 'Requested' status to a 'Processing' status and back to a requested status. This is not because of some fishy business or anything abnormal at all.

Once our UK bank problems had been resolved after weeks of issues, it took us 10 days to catch up with payments out. When payments are are dealt with, the stack of payments are turned from 'Requested' to a 'Processing' status. If we allow users to cancel payments while they are being processed we could be taken severe advantage of and lose our user's payments to theft.

If a daily limit is hit while the payments are processing then the unprocessed payments are put back to 'requested' status. Payments are generally done in order but not always for various reasons. If there is incredible lag sometimes a single payment can take 10 minutes to make, in that case higher value payments are prioritized.

There are a lot of issues like these and we simply cannot communicate all these nuances as well as maintain service. Right now we are pursing finding out 5th payment gateway for just the UK alone in the last year and a half I believe. Many people take things that we would never think of and turn them into somehow being suspicious behavior.

We are trying to provide good service while trying to be a sustainable business. We are learning from our mistakes and trying to preempt issues but these issues are the reason bitcoin exists. 


Hi,

Many thanks for your reply & explanation, I will post it to your Intersango thread as I believe it would be helpful for others who may have been in the same position or were wondering what was happening & why. I wish you good luck with finding a UK bank that can work for you & am looking forward to using Intersango again once you find one.

All the best & for the conference too,

Otoh

[willphase]

Received my GBP withdrawal today.  Metro bank problems still manifesting, or did you guys sort that out?

Cheers,

Will

[Seal]

Received my GBP withdrawal today.  Metro bank problems still manifesting, or did you guys sort that out?

Cheers,

Will

It looks like deposits have been stopped but withdrawals are still happening??

[phantomcircuit]

Received my GBP withdrawal today.  Metro bank problems still manifesting, or did you guys sort that out?

Cheers,

Will

It looks like deposits have been stopped but withdrawals are still happening??

The accounts still open (I assume because it's the weekend).

It could close at any moment so I wouldn't suggest transferring funds into it.

[Stephen Gornick]

Here's a thread in the German forum.  

The assertion is that an attempt to send a deposit to Intersango's bank in Polant was rejected.

Here's the Google Translate of that post to English:

Rejection due to regulatory requirements

After several successful referrals to Intersango now came the first time a "rejection due to regulatory requirements." This is the writing of my norisbank: # # # # Below transfer order has returned the given them the beneficiary's bank: Reason for return: rejection due to regulatory regulations receiver: Intersango LTD recipient IBAN: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX BIC: WBKPPLPPXXX amount: EUR 700.00 Purpose: Intersango Bitcoins XXXXXXXX # # # # The letter rejected the Polish recipient bank. Yes there are also Mt.Gox and bitcoin-24. So a good target to hinder Bitcoins. Does anyone have any other information?

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=109433.0

Is this a new problem, or an isolated incident?

[oblongmeteor]

Right - this may be of interest to some of you. I turned this up on an entirely random unconnected search on Google.

Firstly; this extract from a Topix forum (Link : http://www.topix.com/forum/drug/valium/TEMNUUCTLB0786BGV):

"Big news, be careful

http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=24376.120

http://www.topix.com/forum/drug/valium/TDB3N8...

Ultrafunkular3 / real_gp_diaz / Intersango being investigated by SOCA for criminal activity.

It's a long story, but it goes like this.

A few weeks ago HSBC got in deep shit with US regulators for being used by criminals to wire money worldwide with no checks or cautions, the US regulators turned up the heat on HSBC and the UK regulators big time and it's all being dragged through the courts at the moment.

A few days back someone used Intersango to buy Bitcoins, they transferred via bank transfer UK GBP from their account into Intersango's Metro account. They got the money into Intersango successfully, got some Bitcoins then used those Bitcoins to buy some drugs.

The drugs never turned up, so the person wanted their money back. They bitched to Metro bank that they had done a transfer into an account of theirs which was to pay someone to buy drugs and that it hadn't worked, so could they have their money back please?(They probably thought this would be funny, but hey it hasn't turned out that way)."

I'm sure most of you know the .onion link is a TOR URI - specifically to the Silk Road forums so be forewarned.

Secondly; For those of you who don't have/ don't want to install ToR to read the rest of the sorry story, here is a copy of one of the more interesting posts:

"So with a little inside information and some basic logic I've been able to piece together what's really happeneing at Intersango.

It's a long story, but it goes like this.

A few weeks ago HSBC got in deep shit with US regulators for being used by criminals to wire money worldwide with no checks or cautions, the US regulators turned up the heat on HSBC and the UK regulators big time and it's all being dragged through the courts at the moment.

A few days back someone used Intersango to buy Bitcoins, they transferred via bank transfer UK GBP from their account into Intersango's Metro account. They got the money into Intersango successfully, got some Bitcoins then used those Bitcoins to buy some drugs.

The drugs never turned up, so the person wanted their money back. They bitched to Metro bank that they had done a transfer into an account of theirs which was to pay someone to buy drugs and that it hadn't worked, so could they have their money back please? (They probably thought this would be funny, but hey it hasn't turned out that way).

The shit hit the fan at Metro Bank, especially with the added heat from regulators they initially just froze but later infact completely closed Intersango's Metro bank account. This is why Intersango initially thought they were having temporary issues and then later on admitted they were being subject to a full investigation and it will take weeks.

After a brief investigation Metro Bank were forced to hand information over to SOCA (The Serious Organized Crime Agency), the British equivalent of the FBI & DEA combined. SOCA are now investigating and planning to bring charges of money laundering and assisting in the supply and sale of class A, B & C substances contrary to the misuse of banned substances XYZ act (not sure exactly) against Intersango.

I'm not sure whether the guy who originally bitched to Metro bank about loosing his money is complying with SOCA and this is why they're able to bring an investigation, my guess is probably yes, they must have got his IP or email address or something and traced it to him.

Anyway I'll keep you guys updated as things develop.

It seems to me something like this was inevitable anyway.

Also on a side note Intersango still haven't fulfilled their legal obligation to file their company accounts which were due on 25/07/2012, so now 3 days overdue:
http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/9858dc17db80d4d92f692dc3de29753c/compdetails

Although considering their probably currently sweating in a Met Police cell, this doesn't really surprise me. Also I guess it would be pretty easy to file accounts when they currently stand at -£2 million (permanent SOCA wire transfer lol)."

* Authors note. I've posted the un-redacted posts complete with all the URI's as they were on the source sites. If this is judged to be against the board rules in this context, please redact them.


 

[Herodes]

Sucks to be the Intersango guys at this point I guess.


However I have one question. How the f*ck could Intersango be complicit in assisting the purchase of banned substances ?


If Avg Joe gets 2K punds into his bank account as wages, then goes to an ATM and withdraws 0.5K punds, and he goes to a street dealer and purchases cocaine, how the hell could the bank be blamed for that ? That would never happen, as it is the customer that is to blame, and if there's a police investigation, the bank shall not at all be investigated. That's only logical.

And the same thing with Intersango. Intersango facilitates trades fiat <> btc. How the hell can they be resposible if somebody purchases btc, then withdraw this and buys drugs, explosives, guns or anything else that's illegal ?

If the authorities pin Intersango for this, it looks quite dim for most bitcoin companies selling bitcoins, or exchanges for that matter.

Why can't we just agree that the individual is always responsible for his act?

Should we investigate Dell if said customer used a Dell machine to attempt buy drugs? Heck, perhaps the customer is a criminal and bought his Dell machine just to plan criminal acts. OMG, should we not investigate Dell ?

Could somebody please explain to me exactly why Intersango should be accused of money laundering and drugsale?