{"id":11204,"date":"2025-08-16T13:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T10:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/darknet-marketplace-founder-arrested-in-czech-republic-over-bitcoin-bribery-case\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T13:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T10:50:09","slug":"darknet-marketplace-founder-arrested-in-czech-republic-over-bitcoin-bribery-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/darknet-marketplace-founder-arrested-in-czech-republic-over-bitcoin-bribery-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Darknet Marketplace Founder Arrested in Czech Republic Over Bitcoin Bribery Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Czech police <a href=\"https:\/\/verejnazaloba.cz\/vsz-olomouc\/tiskova-zprava-ze-dne-16-8-2025-v-trestni-veci-souvisejici-s-darovanim-bitcoinu\/\">have arrested<\/a> programmer Tom\u00e1\u0161 Ji\u0159ikovsk\u00fd in connection with a criminal investigation related to a bitcoin donation to the country&#8217;s Ministry of Justice.<\/p>\n<p>The press release does not directly name the detainee, but the context points to Ji\u0159ikovsk\u00fd. Several local media outlets have also confirmed the information.<\/p>\n<p>According to Den\u00edk N, the arrest took place on the evening of August 14. The suspect attempted to evade the police by climbing onto the roof of his house during the raid.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"cs\" dir=\"ltr\">Policie v\u010dera ve\u010der za dramatick\u00fdch okolnost\u00ed zasahovala v b\u0159eclavsk\u00e9m dom\u011b, kde p\u0159eb\u00fdv\u00e1 d\u00e1rce miliardy v bitcoinech Tom\u00e1\u0161 Ji\u0159ikovsk\u00fd. Mu\u017e, kter\u00e9ho vy\u0161et\u0159ovatel\u00e9 podez\u00edraj\u00ed z nedovolen\u00e9 v\u00fdroby a jin\u00e9ho nakl\u00e1d\u00e1n\u00ed s drogami, b\u011bhem razie unikl na st\u0159echu domu. Posl\u00e9ze jej policist\u00e9\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zUYkVoWxCV\">pic.twitter.com\/zUYkVoWxCV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Den\u00edk N (@enkocz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/enkocz\/status\/1956245241612193886?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Ji\u0159ikovsk\u00fd is the founder of the darknet marketplace Sheep Marketplace, which was shut down in 2013. In 2017, he received a nine-year prison sentence but was released on parole in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>After his release, he attempted to reclaim seized equipment, including a laptop with a bitcoin wallet containing approximately 1560 BTC. The case stalled in court until March 2025, when Ji\u0159ikovsk\u00fd, through his lawyer, donated 468 BTC (30%) of the confiscated assets to the government.<\/p>\n<p>The incident sparked a corruption scandal in the Czech Republic, leading to the resignation of the former Minister of Justice, Pavel Bla\u017eek. The opposition accused him of accepting a bribe and the opaque sale of assets.<\/p>\n<p>Ji\u0159ikovsk\u00fd is currently in custody. He faces two criminal charges from 2015 and 2025 related to money laundering of illicit funds.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent statement, authorities announced that the police have also decided to seize the cryptocurrency held by the Ministry of Justice in a wallet managed by the Office for Government Representation in Property Affairs, recognizing it as criminal proceeds.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in June, the anti-corruption agency cleared President Javier Milei of ethics violations related to the promotion of the meme token LIBRA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Czech police have arrested programmer Tom\u00e1\u0161 Ji\u0159ikovsk\u00fd in connection with a criminal investigation related to a bitcoin donation to the country&#8217;s Ministry of Justice. The press release does not directly name the detainee, but the context points to Ji\u0159ikovsk\u00fd. Several local media outlets have also confirmed the information. According to Den\u00edk N, the arrest took [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[137,1427,1323],"class_list":["post-11204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-corruption","tag-czech-republic","tag-investigations"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"251","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}