Belarus Issues International Arrest Warrant for Owner of Country’s ‘Largest Crypto Exchanger’ – Exchanges Bitcoin News

Minsk law enforcement officers are asking for international help to find and arrest the man responsible for the largest online cryptocurrency exchange in Belarus. A tax investigation into three of his associates has found that the crypto trader was guilty of tax evasion. The state lost $3.5 million.

Belarusian Bitok.me Operator Now Needed for International Tax Offenses

A criminal investigation was launched in Belarus by three Lida residents. They were accused of helping an illegal crypto-exchange platform owner dodge taxes. Vladislav Kuchinsky, who managed Bitok.me (formerly Bitok.by) for two years, has been accused of “tax evasion on an especially large scale” and put on an international wanted list.

During that period, Kuchinsky and his “representatives” used the platform to facilitate the purchase and sale of “digital signs (tokens),” the legal term used to define cryptocurrencies under Belarusian law, with fiat cash and non-cash payments. According to the Investigative Commission of Belarus, they offered exchanges between cryptocurrency.

In total, the Bitok’s operators conducted almost 8,000 transactions involving digital currencies for a total amount exceeding $29 million, a press release detailed. According to current exchange rates, the estimated cost to the state budget from tax evasion based on their activities was more than 9,000,000 Belarusian rubles.

Minsk officials also noted that they used anonymization tools and SIM cards with fake names to hide their identities. They also had accounts on international crypto platforms, which made it possible for them not to be noticed. Investigators managed eventually to trace all money transferred and identify the individuals involved in the crypto trading operation.

Police seized documents and computer equipment during searches. They also retorted $280,000 in cash. Belarusian law enforcers were also able establish which bank accounts the defendants used in Belarus and Georgia, where they had almost $800,000 on balances. They then arrested them.

With assistance from Moscow, Belarus obtained a database with information about 2,000 of Bitok’s clients whose activities are also under investigation. The Investigative Department stated that those who transacted the most, which exceeded $50,000, were being interrogated.

Crypto Exchanger Operates Despite Ongoing Investigation

Vladislavkuchinsky ran the online currency exchanger, advised his clients to ignore law enforcement calls, and attempted withdrawals from the accounts that were frozen despite the arrest of his associates and their trial. The international arrest warrant issued by Belarus for Bitok’s owner has been executed and he is being charged with absentia tax evasion.

According to the Investigative Committee, the cryptocurrency trading services were illegal because they weren’t registered as residents of Belarus High-Tech Park. The latter is responsible for implementing a special legal regime established to facilitate the development of the country’s digital economy, including its crypto sector.

Belarus approved business activity in crypto assets. President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree in 2017 that allowed this. It entered effect in spring 2018. The decree provided tax relief and incentives to companies that trade in digital currencies, who register with HTP Minsk.

Last spring, Lukashenko suggested that the rules could be tightened and ordered the creation of a cryptocurrency wallet registry. Belarus was third in Eastern Europe for crypto adoption. This is largely due in part to the strong peer-to–peer activity as shown by Chainalysis’s Crypto Adoption Index.

Are you expecting Belarusian authorities will crackdown on unregistered cryptocurrency trading platforms? Leave your comments below.

Lubomir Tatsev

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens’s quote: “Being a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.