The co-founder of the service denied the accusations, saying that the company did not have accounts in any banks and did not evade taxes, since it received income in cryptocurrency.. Bitzlato, Shkurenko assures, has always strived to comply with KYC and AML requirements under harsh European laws, cooperating with law enforcement officers to prevent illegal activities.
The businessman stressed that the management of Bitzlato did not sign confidentiality agreements with Europol, so employees have the right to tell the public how the trial is going on.. Shkurenko said that in addition to another co-founder Anatoly Legkodymov, who was arrested in the United States, four more people were taken into custody in Europe. The head of Bitzlato thanked the lawyers supporting the company and expressed the hope that soon the charges would be dropped and the people would be released.
Bitzlato employees audited losses and decided that the service will continue to work with users waiting for the company to return to the market, the businessman says. Now Bitzlato is looking for a data center contractor, where the equipment will be placed and the service will be launched in the form in which it was disabled on January 18. The new infrastructure, the co-founder assures, will be located in Russia, out of reach of law enforcement agencies, which could block it.
As for the payment of funds to users, Anton Shkurenko assured that 50% of the funds in bitcoins held on Bitzlato wallets can be withdrawn on the same day the service is launched.. For the rest of the altcoins, they will be compensated to users gradually, but it is still difficult to name specific dates.. The company plans to earn in order to pay off the debt to users on the balance of funds. And there is a debt, since part of the funds from the hot wallet was confiscated by investigators (about 35% of user funds).
The Bits.media editors received comments on the situation with Bitzlato from the official representative of the Binance crypto exchange. Earlier, as part of the investigation into the Bitzlato case, the exchange was forced to block the accounts of several users from Eastern Europe and the CIS. More than 90% of accounts have now been unlocked and client funds are safe, Binance assures.