From March 1, users of the Bitzlato cryptocurrency exchange, whose infrastructure was seized by the French prosecutor, were able to begin частичный вывод средств. This was confirmed by the exchange’s representatives in a ForkLog comment.
According to Anton Shkurenko, who now serves as a freelance consultant to Bitzlato, clients could access up to 50% of their balance in bitcoins. The minimum withdrawal was 0.001 BTC, the fee — 0.0003 BTC. Shkurenko did not specify the total amount withdrawn.
“I don’t know in what quantity the funds were withdrawn, but judging by the official chat, more than half of users want to leave their funds and wait for the launch of the P2P platform,” he told ForkLog.
At present, all assets on Bitzlato are flagged by AML-services as high-risk. In connection with this, the exchange’s team рекомендовала clients to use platforms without anti-money-laundering checks and cold wallets, or withdraw funds to a card after the launch of the P2P platform on March 14.
“We cannot guarantee that an external service will not stop you under AML protocols. Therefore, we recommend testing withdrawals with a small amount,” the Bitzlato representatives added.
On January 17, the U.S. Department of Justice arrested the founder of Bitzlato Anatoliy Legkodymov on charges of money laundering, related to the Hydra darknet marketplace. A day later, the service’s operation was suspended.
Later it became known of the arrest of former chief executive Mikhail Lunyev, marketing manager Alexander Goncharenko, contractor for implementing Monolithos DAO Pavel Lerner, and the platform’s system administrator.
On February 7, Anton Shkurenko was summoned for a meeting at the Tverskoy Interdistrict Prosecutor’s Office in Moscow. Officials requested from France the materials of the criminal case against Bitzlato to study the possibility of opening additional proceedings on Russian soil.
According to Europol, in total the exchange converted assets tied to criminal activity worth around €1 billion ($1.08 billion).