Assets in an unlicensed money transferring business associated with Mt. Gox seized.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has frozen a mobile payments account associated with Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. This is part of an investigation announced on Tuesday. Dwolla is a mobile payment company based in Iowa. They have confirmed that they received a warrant from the Department of Homeland Security and have halted all activity associated with the account that belongs to Mt. Gox. A spokesperson for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stated that an investigation is underway.
The warrant states that a special agent for Homeland Security Investigations claims that he has reason to believe that Mt. Gox has broken a law that prohibits a company from operating an unlicensed “money transmitting business.” Further, the warrant states that because Mt. Gox, is operating as a money transferring business, they have the right to seize the funds in Mt. Gox’s Dwolla account. Mt. Gox, till now, has not released a formal statement.
Over the last month we have written a lot about Bitcoins. From new US startups like CoinLab, who sued Mt. Gox, to the CFTC and other US agencies looking into regulating Bitcoins. With the recent news about possible US regulation, we have to wonder if these incidents are linked in some form. We will continue to bring you details as we lean about them.
For the entire Homeland Security seizure warrant click here.
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