DHS shuts down Mt Gox's Dwolla account, issues "seizure warrant"

amy31416

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http://betabeat.com/2013/05/departm...huts-down-dwolla-payments-to-and-from-mt-gox/

The Department of Homeland Security appears to have shut down the ability to use Dwolla, a mobile payment service, to withdraw and deposit money into Mt. Gox, a Bitcoin trading platform. A Dwolla representative confirmed the move to Betabeat. Chris Coyne, cofounder of OKCupid, posted a screenshot of an email he received from Dwolla, stating that due to recent orders from the Department of Homeland Security, Dwolla cannot complete the bank transfer to Mt. Gox.

A representative for Dwolla told Betabeat that the company is “not party” to this matter and encourages those with questions to reach out to Mt. Gox or the DHS.

“The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a ‘Seizure Warrant’ for the funds associated with Mutum Sigillium’s Dwolla account (a.k.a. Mt. Gox),” he said. “In light of the court order, procured by the Department of Homeland Security, Dwolla has ceased all account activities associated with Dwolla services for Mutum Sigillum while Dwolla’s holding partner transferred Mutum Sigillium’s balance, per the warrant.”

“Dwolla requires a court order before honoring requests such as seizing funds or revoking access to an account,” he added.

More details at link above.

ETA: I know it's shutting down Dwolla payments to and from, but had to simplify the title to fit.
 
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This is the screencap of the email Coyne posted.
 
ETA: I know it's shutting down Dwolla payments to and from, but had to simplify the title to fit.

Also seizing their Dwolla account. I think it's safe to assume that any other accounts they had with other money in them are also being seized.


Thank you Big Brother for keeping us safe!
 
Also seizing their Dwolla account. I think it's safe to assume that any other accounts they had with other money in them are also being seized.


Thank you Big Brother for keeping us safe!

It's looking like this will make buying/selling BTC much more difficult in the US. Not to mention it could perhaps make other BTC businesses less likely to do business with anything US based. Have to see how this unravels.
 
I knew it would happen eventually but this is a lot sooner than I imagined. It kind of had the same vibe as online poker did for a while. We all know it's operating in a legal grey zone and it's only a matter of time.
 
I knew it would happen eventually but this is a lot sooner than I imagined. It kind of had the same vibe as online poker did for a while. We all know it's operating in a legal grey zone and it's only a matter of time.

Yeah. I've been expecting things like this, except I hadn't expected it to go on this long without the feds taking serious action. I'm interested to see what the BTC community does to counter it.
 
It's looking like this will make buying/selling BTC much more difficult in the US.

Not really. Very few of the people I know into bitcoin buy directly through MtGox. Accounts have been a hassle to set up there for quite some time. Most buy through some other intermediary (friend, local contact, Coinbase, etc). While those larger intermediaries are likely trading on MtGox, they most likely are not doing so through Dwolla.

The real question, atm, is wether this is an isolated incident or a first step.

-Aahz
 
Title is spreading disinfo.

How about:

BREAKING: DHS shuts down Mt Gox transfers through Dwolla accounts.
 
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