BTC-e was one of the most important crypto exchanges in the United States between 2011 and 2017. During this period, the company had one of its most lucrative markets there with trading volumes of nearly 10 billion. dollars. But local authorities soon noticed that BTC-e’s activity was not entirely legal. According to the Department of Justice, its leaders allowed users (many of whom were criminals) to trade bitcoin (BTC) anonymously and launder money. To shed light on the case, authorities seized Google officials. But things didn’t go as planned.
Google had undermined a federal investigation into the crypto exchange
Google will improve its legal compliance program. The ad comes from a communicated from the US Department of Justice, available since October 25. It comes after Google lost data related to the BTC-e crypto exchange a few years ago. This one, which covered criminal activities, was shut down in 2017.
Indeed, the Department of Justice suspected illegal activity at the crypto service provider. In 2016, he asked Google to deliver data on BTC-e to him. But Google opposed it with case law that limited this type of collaboration to data stored on American soil. The company added that due to certain optimization algorithms that move data around the world, it could not clearly define what information it was required to deliver to authorities. A position that caused the Justice Department’s request to fail.
The unblocking of the situation by Congress
This setback prompted Congress to pass the CLOUD Act. Indeed, the text required that all related data is delivered, regardless of where it is stored. Unfortunately, the crypto exchange data, initially sought by the ministry, had been lost. Google has assured that it is making efforts to avoid this type of incident in the future. In fact, the Department of Justice press release reports that the company has already invested more than $90 million in additional resources and personnel to adapt its compliance program to the new requirements.
“The tech giant will ensure timely and complete responses to legal processes such as subpoenas and search warrants, in the future”specifies the note of the ministry.
BTC-e officials had made deals with criminal groups involved in various trafficking. This, to launder money from their activities, through bitcoin (BTC) and the platform. US authorities quickly shut down the company’s operations. Last August, they announced the extradition of the former director of the exchange, Alexander Vinnik, from Greece to the United States.
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