Czech ministry under fire for accepting Bitcoin from convicted criminal

The Czech Ministry of Justice has been heavy criticized aft an autarkic audit revealed it accepted a Bitcoin donation from a convicted transgression without due owed diligence.

According to a July 31 report released by Grant Thornton and shared by the ministry connected X, officials failed to measure the ineligible and reputational risks tied to the donation. The auditors said the ministry ignored reddish flags and could not use modular governance protocols earlier approving the transaction.

The Bitcoin donation was made by Tomáš Jirčikovaky, who was antecedently convicted for operating Sheep Marketplace, a acheronian web level utilized for amerciable cause sales. The ministry aboriginal sold the donated Bitcoin for 956.8 cardinal CZK, astir $45 million, without addressing the questionable root of the funds.

The audit noted that determination was nary grounds that the Ministry of Justice decently evaluated the transaction earlier accepting it. It added that contempt wide informing signs, the ministry failed to dainty the donation arsenic high-risk.

Meanwhile, the study besides criticized the Ministry of Finance for accepting the proceeds from the Bitcoin merchantability without conducting immoderate ceremonial review.

Grant Thornton besides described handling the full process arsenic a superior governance lapse, informing that it exposed some ministries to ineligible and ethical scrutiny.

Czech MP Ivan Madlova reacted to the findings by stating that the audit confirms long-standing nationalist concerns. She said:

“The ministry should not person accepted immoderate gift. There are inactive important question marks. And answers are missing. I’d alternatively not adjacent cognize however overmuch that audit outgo us.”

The ungraded sparked wide backlash successful June, culminating successful a failed no-confidence ballot against the authorities and the resignation of then-Justice Minister Pavel Blažek.

In his response, Blažek downplayed the audit’s findings. He claimed the study identified nary ineligible violations and simply repeated “publicly known risks and assumptions.”

He added:

“The alleged summary of the archetypal portion of the audit does not bespeak a usurpation of immoderate circumstantial ineligible work oregon regulation, which I person been asserting from the opening of the ‘affair’…No caller findings, conscionable a convenient substance for nonfiction headlines, but with stale content.”

The station Czech ministry nether occurrence for accepting Bitcoin from convicted criminal appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.