Bitzlato co-founder Anton Shkurenko: “The service will restore work and pay out funds to users”

Article Reading Time:
2 minutes.

In an interview with the creatorYouTube channel Satoshkin Dmitry Stepanin Anton Shkurenko said that the French prosecutor's office opened a case against the Bitzlato service, accusing its management of money laundering through cryptocurrencies.

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 strict European laws, cooperating with law enforcement to prevent illegal activities.

The businessman emphasized that the management of Bitzlatohas not signed a confidentiality agreement with Europol, so employees have the right to tell the public how the trial is happening. 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 hope that the charges against the detainees will soon be dropped and the people will be released.

Bitzlato employees conducted an audit of losses anddecided that the service will continue to work with users waiting for the company to return to the market, the businessman says. Bitzlato is now looking for a data center contractor where the equipment will be located 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 the reach of law enforcement agencies that could block it.

Regarding payment of funds to users -Anton Shkurenko assured that 50% of the funds in bitcoins located in Bitzlato wallets can be withdrawn on the same day when the service launches. For other altcoins, they will be compensated to users gradually, but it is still difficult to name specific terms. The company plans to earn money 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).

Editorial Bits.media 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. Now more than 90% of accounts have already been unblocked and client funds are safe, Binance assures.