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Straits Times
18-06-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Czech government survives no-confidence motion over bitcoin scandal
PRAGUE - The Czech centre-right government on Wednesday survived a vote of no confidence, called after the acceptance of a payment to the state by an ex-convict worth $45 million in bitcoin sparked controversy within the ruling coalition months before an election. The biggest opposition party, ANO, which leads opinion polls ahead of an October 3-4 election, had filed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Petr Fiala's government, accusing it of helping the former cybercriminal legitimise his bitcoin holdings of potentially illegal origin. The motion failed after two days of debate in the lower house, where Fiala's ruling coalition led by his Civic Democrats Party, holds a majority. Political veteran Pavel Blazek, from Fiala's party, resigned as justice minister on May 31 for accepting the payment on behalf of the state, though he denied doing anything illegal. Fiala has called accepting the gift a political and ethical mistake. The man who made the donation of 468 bitcoins to the state was in jail from 2017 until 2021 after being convicted of involvement in the drug trade, fraud and illegal possession of weapons for running an illegal drug market on the internet called Sheep Marketplace. Blazek has faced criticism for possibly legitimising the ex-convict's assets, instead of turning to prosecutors or police to help secure them. The gift, Blazek has said, was agreed to be 30% of bitcoins found in a wallet on computers returned to the ex-convict by courts earlier this year. It was not clear what was the ex-convict's motivation to make the donation. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
LeMonde
31-05-2025
- Politics
- LeMonde
Czech justice minister resigns after accepting €40 million in bitcoin from convicted criminal
What was initially presented as a great deal quickly unraveled. On Friday, May 30, Czech Justice Minister Pavel Blazek, the conservative politician, resigned after two days of controversy over the sale by his ministry of bitcoins "donated for free" by a criminal convicted of drug trafficking. The scandal began with a tweet from the ministry, which boasted, on Wednesday, on X, that it had auctioned off nearly 500 bitcoins two days earlier, raising close to 1 billion Czech koruna (about €40 million). According to Blazek, the money was meant to help fund the digitization of the justice system, fight drug use in prisons, and provide housing for prison staff. But a major problem was quickly pointed out by Denik N. On Thursday, the news site revealed that the bitcoins were donated by Tomas Jirikovsky, a notorious criminal convicted in 2017 of "embezzlement, drug trafficking, and illegal possession of weapons." He had been found guilty of running Sheep Marketplace, a marketplace on the dark web known for dealing illegal products.
