TL;DR Breakdown
- Russia says it won’t freeze Wex accounts on mere accusations until a conclusive investigation is done.
- Around $46M of cryptocurrency is at stake.
Wex victims’ have been requesting the Ministry of Interior to restrict crypto funds. The Russian authorities have ignored their pleas. Wex is now non-functioning. Yet, the tokens that were under its control are being wired elsewhere. So far, about 10,000 ETH have been moved to another DEX. The unexplained shift is making Wex customers attempt to halt the platform.
Wex clients are struggling to halt $46M of crypto
Despite the push by Wex victims, the police force is adamant they won’t act. The victims called out for the authority to assist in stopping $45.9 M of digital assets. This amount moved from one of Wex’s wallets in Sept.
Details are coming out on several social platforms. For instance, Sergey Mendeleev, CEO of Indefibank, gave some pieces on digital media. He made a quote referenced on the formal report from the agency.
Reports indicated that Wex victims furnished the inquiry unit with necessary details. They issued a comprehensive plan of how Wex moved the tokens from a folder to other platforms.
Furthermore, the customers even gave police data from analytics instruments. The device revealed that the tokens were missing. Besides, the relentless victims made their case to Binance. They figured the Binance platform received 97.8 ETH. Binance was responsive as it froze the assets for a week.
Binance has a policy that allows it to freeze assets temporarily. But it only applies when there is enough proof of fraud. Upon freezing, the aggrieved party must inform relevant authorities. The person must then hand a police report to Binance. After that, Binance will join with the investigative experts to sort the mess.
Ministry of Interior called for thorough investigations
It is against the backdrop of this procedure that Wex customers made a statement to the authorities. Unfortunately, the police didn’t buy their story. On October 25, the Ministry gave them an absolute rejoinder. The Ministry noted that the case needs a high-level probe before taking any step. The statement said that rushing to suspend the assets at that moment was rash.
Wex platform took over the nefarious BTC-e. BTC-e was a powerhouse crypto exchange stage. Yet, it declined about four years back. Around Sept, there were rumors of arrests of Dimitry Vasiliev in Warsaw. The polish officials confirmed the stories. The officials stated that they were looking into an extradition application by Kazakhstan. It turns out, Vasiliev was a fugitive in Kazakhstan. He has a fraud case to answer.
Towards the last quarter of 2017, Wex was born. By then, it hit a daily yield of $80 M. Nonetheless, in 2018, it stopped withdrawals. Later, it went bankrupt.
Going by the estimates quoted by Forklog, the loss is massive. It exceeds $400 M. Yet, Vasiliev is facing an accusation of stealing $200 M.
