Ex-CEO of the now-defunct exchange Mintpal, Ryan Kennedy, has had his arrest confirmed over non-compliance with a court order requiring him to repay 750 BTC to one of his customers.
The arrest, which according to the director of Mintpal’s previous holding company, Ferdous Bhai, occurred “around [Christ]mas,” was brought about by UK law enforcement after Syscoin, which saw “massive losses” due to Mintpal’s collapse, did not receive payment after pursuing Kennedy through the courts in October last year. Kennedy was later released on bail.
Bhai alleges he was “under confidentiality terms” and so could not confirm the news at the time, and his confirmations were in response to Syscoin’s Dan Wasyluk’s admissions. An update by Coinfire additionally cites a document obtained from “a solicitor intimately familiar with the situation” and which it claims confirms the details.
Kennedy is widely believed to have stolen the equivalent of over 3,700 BTC from Mintpal once it was under the control of his company Moolah, from which he resigned in October following Mintpal’s collapse. Some of this amount he allegedly resold on LocalBitcoins with the help of “occasional accomplice,” Chelsea Hopkins, who has also been arrested in the UK.
Syscoin, which is continuing to provide evidence in the case, recently published an update on the proceedings in which it stated:
“We’ve produced evidence verified by a cryptographic expert; the story the blockchain tells is not one that aligns with the explanation provided (bug stole the bitcoin) for the loss of the coins by Moolah.”
The company announced it is “also ensuring any accomplices who were complicit in this crime are being held accountable.”
CoinFire notes that the legal proceedings in the UK will have impacted on an existing SEC investigation involving Kennedy’s sale of unregistered securities, but that the results are yet to be seen.
“The blockchain’'s is a perfect example of how the popular Bitcoin adage ‘can't be evil’ as it relates to its public ledger acts as an excellent crime solving tool for law enforcement and private investigations for services like forensics accounting,” uBITquity founder and COO Nathan Wosnack commented to Cointelegraph in light of the developments.
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