The charges stem from an investigation within the US Secret Service, which many associate only with guarding politicians - however they also participate regularly in investigations of financial crimes like counterfeit money and money laundering.
In the meantime, CoinFlux which boasted 18,000+ users has halted all activity leaving their legitimate user's funds in limbo. Stating on a blog post:
"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, situation which affects the CoinFlux wallets as well. We are doing all possible efforts, along with our legal advisers, to make sure everyone who had money deposited in CoinFlux wallets gets it back."
Following the arrest of CEO Nistor Vlad Călin he stated his innocence, and that he had no way of knowing his exchange was being used for illegal activity. It's clear the US government believes this to be false but we haven't heard their evidence to back that up, yet.
Lawyers for Călin immediately began working to stop their client from being extradited to the US, but according to Romanian news outlets those efforts failed and "the decision is final".
While the specifics haven't been released on who's money he is being accused of laundering, the rumors floating around Romanian cryptocurrency forums are that the money originates with scams and fraud being committed within the United States which are then converted to Bitcoin, then back into fiat, using Coinflux to do it.
No trial dates are set yet.
Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk
