Regulations, crackdowns, seizures, government intervention

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This thread is for things like exchanges having their bank accounts frozen, seizures of cash/bitcoins/exchange servers, new laws or regulations, and general crackdowns that occur.

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Bitfloor's bank account was closed. Apparently, it appears they will be shutting down indefinitely.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the BitFloor USD bank account will be closed. As a result, BitFloor will be unable to continue operations until this matter is resolved. In order to facilitate an orderly return of your funds, I ask that you cancel all of your open orders, stop any and all deposits into BitFloor and withdraw the BTC you have which are not on hold. If you are setup for ACH withdraw, please withdraw your USD as well.

We are still working to resolve the bank account situation but feel it appropriate to take these actions at this time. Should anything change in our position, we will notify you as soon as we have more information.

This email is being sent to groups of account holders to avoid a widespread panic and affect market conditions.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to respond back via email for further followup.
I appreciate your understanding in this challenging period for BitFloor.

~Roman founder - bitfloor.com


Recently, Bitcoin24's bank account in Poland was shut down as well:
Our Service is momentarily not available.



All funds (EUR, USD, PLN, GBP & Bitcoins) are safe.

All withdrawals will be gradually processed chronologically from another bank account.

The Polish authority closed your Bank account in Poland.

Our lawyers are working with high pressure on a solution.

We will back with Bitcoin-24 2.0 on when all declarations are finished.

All important Emails can be send to help@bitcoin-24.com


Little Update! As some of you know, I had some problems with the German bank accounts in the past. I have solved the problem with moving to Poland and we had also never problems with them.

Why does this all happen? The "Deutsche Bank" in Germany had some phishing attacks / hacker and some funds where send to my bank account. This attacks does not stop on the "Deutsche Bank", because it seems, that it is a very stupid bank! So they closed my bank accounts in Germany and I got an invite from the German police, to tell them, what I am doing. After that I had no problems but my Bank accounts where closed. (this all happen in the start time of bitcoin-24)
In my opinion the problems where fixed. I moved to poland and make all business on the BZWBK. The Germans are now fighting against me and the "Deutsche Bank" has still the same problems, that people are sending me money from stolen bank accounts! THATS NOT MY PROBLEM! The only thing I can do now is to not accept payments from the "Deutsche Bank".
The Germans think now, that I am trying to get money with this methode. So they look now, where I have money and try to close all bank accounts.
Why in Poland? The Germans think, I am a criminal guy and they will stop the crime. They asked the poland for help and they closed my bank account in poland.
I have 7 days to make something against this, otherwise my bank account will be closed for the next 3 month! I am very sure, that we can get back the bank account in the next time. I will not give you a promise, but it is possible, that I will get back the bank account in the next week.
(sorry for my bad english)


CaVirtEx got their Royal Bank account closed:

Our Royal Bank account will be closing on April 5, 2013. Cash payments will no longer be accepted at any RBC branch after April 5, 2013. You may still make cash payments to BMO and Scotiabank. Bill payments are not affected by this close.


The European bank of MtGox was forced to implement withdrawal limits.

Thank you for your reply and we apologize for the inconvenience that this may have caused. We have reached the daily limit for withdrawal that was imposed on us by our bank and all withdrawals are now being queued for processing and all will be processed according to the daily queue and we will keep you updated once processed and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Thanks,
MtGox.com Team


There are others. I don't have all the details:

# Bitfloor just got their bank account closed
# Bitcoin-24 got both their German and Polish bank accounts frozen
# CaVirtEx got their Royal Bank account closed, not sure how to fund them right now
# MtGox survives and thrives although the SEPA transfers are crippled by insufficient daily limit of their Polish bank account
# BTC-E rejects many claims of accounts being hacked - I wouldn't trust a Russian exchange run by unknown people anyway sorry.
# BitStamp survives and thrives so far thanks to lax legislation in Slovenia.
# BTChina - no info at all about these?


It's happening.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=179195.0

[JohnQPublic]

https://bitcoin-24.com/more

Our Service is momentarily not available.
1. All funds (EUR, USD, PLN, GBP & Bitcoins) are safe.
2. All withdrawals will be gradually processed chronologically from another bank account.
3. The Polish authority closed our Bank account in Poland.
4. Our lawyers are working with high pressure on a solution.

Die Gründe für die Schließung unserer Konten durch internationale Großbanken sind uns nun bekannt und rechtlich mehr als fragwürdig. Unsere Rechtsanwälte gehen mit aller Konsequenz gegen dieses Verhalten vor. Wir gehen davon aus, dass wir kurzfristig wieder vollständig handlungsfähig sind und alle Geschäfte mit noch größerem Engagement im Sinne aller Nutzer vorantreiben können. Die Sorgen der Großbanken sind uns ein zusätzlicher Ansporn dabei! Wir werden sie zeitnah über die weitere Entwicklung informieren.
(English this evening)

Beschluss Polen (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2329063/Beschluss%20Scan_geschwaerzt.pdf)
Einspruch gegen den Beschluss (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2329063/Einspruch%20Scan_geschwaerzt.pdf)
Durchsuchungsbefehl (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2329063/beschluss_durchsuchung_geschwaerzt.pdf)

© Bitcoin-24.com 2012

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This isn't specific to bitcoin, but it will likely cause businesses to switch to bitcoin to avoid the BS, and thereby cause a crackdown on bitcoin itself.

Senators Are Trying to Rush Through a Massive Online Sales Tax Hike http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/183mxe18qhj5yjpg/avt-small.jpg Jamie Condliffe

A band of pro-tax Senators are attempting to rush through policy that would see online sales tax being paid even in states that don't have sales tax.
The Wall Street Journal reports (http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324493704578432961601644942-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwMTEyNDEyWj.html) that the Senate will vote this week—perhaps as early as today—on a bill introduced just last Tuesday. The Journal explains the bill, (http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324493704578432961601644942-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwMTEyNDEyWj.html) which became available on the Library of Congress website over the weekend:

For Senators curious about what they're voting on, it is the same flawed proposal that Mike Enzi (R., Wyo.) introduced in February. It has been repackaged to qualify for a Senate rule that allows Majority Leader Harry Reid to bypass committee debate and bring it straight to the floor.
Mr. Enzi's Marketplace Fairness Act discriminates against Internet-based businesses by imposing burdens that it does not apply to brick-and-mortar companies. For the first time, online merchants would be forced to collect sales taxes for all of America's estimated 9,600 state and local taxing authorities.
The bill would see online business in states that don't impose sales tax having to pay up to to governments that do. It wouldn't, however, impose any such expectation on brick-and-mortar stores. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the bill is being supported by the likes of Wal-Mart—but also Amazon. In fact, suggests the Journa (http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324493704578432961601644942-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwMTEyNDEyWj.html)l, big business is generally keen about "sticking it to the little guy".
While the goal is level the playing field, in some sense, it remains unclear if it would actually work—or perhaps just push online sales from those based in the US to other shores. You can read more about the bill over on the WS (http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324493704578432961601644942-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwMTEyNDEyWj.html)J. [WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324493704578432961601644942-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwMTEyNDEyWj.html)

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Another one goes down

Notice to Bitcoin users - April 2013 As you may have noticed, we stopped processing transfers to Bitcoin exchanges this week. We’re very sorry.

In many respects it breaks our heart to have taken this step (we’re a firm that champions financial innovation after all), but our banking providers are not comfortable with Bitcoin and want us to restrict payments to these firms. This is happening everywhere - notably Bitfloor and Bitcoin-24 shut themselves down recently.

Read more:
Transferwise stops processing transfers to bitcoin exchanges. Popular way in UK of getting GBP into Bistamp, is no more. (http://transferwise.com/blog/2013-04/notice-to-bitcoin-users-april-2013)

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Bitcoin’s real-world problem: Virtual currency facing bank backlash in Canada
Joseph David has overcome a lot of challenges since starting up Canada’s first Bitcoin exchange two years ago but his latest hurdle is proving tougher than all the others.
Over the last few days two of the pretenders to the world currency throne — bitcoin, the new high-profile digital currency, and gold, the centuries-old commodity currency — have fallen into a tailspin.

Virtex, based in Calgary, is an online market that matches Bitcoin buyers with sellers, with about $13-million of trades under its belt.
But earlier this month Royal Bank of Canada quietly informed David that it would no longer do business with his company.
“They shut down our account without any reason,” said David, an ebullient entrepreneur with a background in technology companies. “They just said we have the right to refuse service to whomever we wish.”

For whatever reason, many in Canada’s small but fast growing Bitcoin community are suddenly dealing with the same problem: The banks have decided they don’t like the cryptocurrency and they’re shutting down some of the accounts of businesses that deal in it.

read more:
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/04/27/bitcoins-real-world-problem-virtual-currency-facing-bank-backlash-in-canada/

[JohnQPublic]

Senators seek crackdown on "Bitcoin" currency (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/08/us-financial-bitcoins-idUSTRE7573T320110608)
"ST. LOUIS (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - Two senators are pressing federal authorities to crack down on an online black market and "untraceable" digital currency known as Bitcoins after reports that they are used to buy illegal drugs anonymously.


Democratic Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Joe Manchin of West Virginia wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder and Drug Enforcement Administration head Michele Leonhart in a letter that expressed concerns about the underground website "Silk Road" and the use of Bitcoins to make purchases there..."

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DWOLLA
As of 12:13 PM on 5/14/2013:
You’re receiving this notice because our systems have indicated that you’ve processed and completed a real-time Dwolla-to-Dwolla payment to Mutum Sigillum LLC (“Mt. Gox”) within the last 24 hours.
Due to recent court orders received from the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Dwolla is no longer legally able to service Mutum Sigillum LLC’s account.

This is a courtesy email encouraging you to follow up on any uncompleted orders with Mutum Sigillum LLC as Dwolla is now unable to move money to and from Mutum Sigillum LLC’s Dwolla account.
Dwolla is not party to this matter nor does it have any information or further insight into the situation. We strongly encourages those with questions to contact Mutum Sigillum LLC
Note: Dwolla requires a court order before honoring requests such as seizing funds or revoking access to an account.
On behalf of Dwolla, we apologize for this inconvenience.

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BlockChain = in the UK
MtGox = in Japan
BitPay = US
CoinBase = US
Vircurex = China
btc-e.com = Bulgaria
campbx.com = US
bitstamp = EU (Slovenia)
cavirtex.com = Canada
Bitcoin Nordic = Denmark, accepts ucash
kapiton.se = Sweden (EU)
Libertybit.com = Canada
btcchina.com = China (accepts yuan else go thru Liberty Reserve)
blockchain = cannot buy in the UK anymore. Every single UK bank (yes all 5 of them) are blocking usage with bitcoin right now. I today had an account application declined for running a bitcoin related business.

[Ares]

They really do not like competition do they? lol