US prosecutors keep working hard to ensure that
fraudulent activity related to cryptocurrencies is eradicated for the most
part. The latest piece of news, coming from Romania, has shocked the world
because it involves the largest crypto exchange platform in the European
country.
According to reports from local papers and
portals this week, Coinflux’s CEO Vlad Nistor was apprehended on December 13th,
accused of several charges. The detention was made on a warrant from the United
States of America.
The charges are scandalous: As a consequence of the situation, Coinflux stopped providing exchange services on its platform and its accounts were temporarily frozen.
Possible Extradition
The arrest of Nistor occurred on Romanian soil, according to several news hubs in the nation, upon request of US prosecutors. A hearing in the Appeal Court of Bucharest will be held to determine the future fate of the CEO, which can involve its extradition to the United States.
Coinflux, the most prominent cryptocurrency exchange in Romania, was reportedly founded in Cluj, at the heart of the Transylvanian region. It has more than 200 million euro worth of digital assets, namely Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Ripple (XRP)in transactions.
In addition to the CEO’s arrest and the exchange’s accounts being currently frozen, Coinflux announced that all transactions would be suspended for the time being, and that there is an ongoing investigation about the subject, which has restricted access to parts of the platform.
Coinflux’s Statement
In a blog post on the Medium platform, Coinflux also claimed it is unable to communicate with users through its website or email: “Due to a recently started, unexpected investigation, we are in the unpleasant situation of temporarily stopping any digital currency exchanges. Unfortunately, our company’s bank accounts have been frozen, a situation which affects theCoinFlux wallets as well. We are doing all possible efforts, along with our legal advisers, to make sure everyone who had money deposited in CoinFluxwallets gets it back.”
Romanian press has reported that Nistor is the son of one of the founders of Banca Transilvania, which is the second-largest financial institution in the nation. He is 29 years old.
Romania, in its quest to regulate the issuance of electronic money, made the decision in July to release an Emergency Ordinance to attend the issue. As a result, entities looking to issue e-money need to have at least €350,000 ($395,000) of share capital. For years,developments regarding cryptocurrencies were thoroughly unregulated. IlanLaufer, who acts as Romania’s Business,Commerce and Entrepreneurship Environment Minister, states that he believes in digitalassets, but stressed that it needs official regulations.
The exchange celebrated its third anniversary days before the arrest of its CEO, even advertising promotional low prices. Now, and despite the storm, Coinflux stated that their expectation is that we will gain control back, within the next days. We are aware that this is a worrisome situation for the people who have placed their trust in our service, and we assure each and every one of them that we will do everything that is up to us to fix this unfair situation.”
By Andres Chavez
