Ukraine's Security Service Raids Cryptocurrency News Outlet: ForkLog
ForkLog, a cryptocurrency news outlet reporting in Russian language, stated that Ukrainian authorities raided the home of its founder and CEO, Anatoly Kaplan. Furthermore, ForkLog revealed that the authorities also raided its office in Odessa, which led to the seizure of cryptocurrency funds and hardware.
According to ForkLog, the Ukrainian authorities had a search warrant when they came to its CEO's house in Odessa. It all happened on Friday morning, the news provider revealed. ForkLog said that the authorities used their warrant to take some personal belongings of Kaplan, which includes some equipment used to store cryptocurrencies, as well as a notebook, among other items.
ForkLog has been linked to a fraud scheme
ForkLog also revealed the reason why the raid took place. The publication declared that it was conducted in connection with allegations against a group of people from the US and Ukraine, which were involved in a scheme to steal funds from third-party payments. The authorities believe that these people were exchanging bitcoin with the help of ForkLog.
ForkLog denied all these claims, saying that none of the people mentioned in that case were linked to the company or its founder. However, the authorities allegedly claimed that ForkLog is not only a media resource, but it may have also helped in the process of offering exchange services to these people. ForkLog said that there is no way it could have helped.
Of course, the claims were also denied by Kaplan himself, who said that what happened is a warning for everyone involved in this domain.
“In my opinion, this situation directly illustrated one of the possible scenarios of the development of the interaction between the government and the cryptocurrency community, which is why we decided to make this case public. Because it is not so much about protecting my personal interests or the interests ForkLog, as much as about protecting the interests of the entire community. And this event is a warning to everyone involved with Blockchain technology, it doesn’t matter how public you are. We’re currently working with lawyers to release personal property. What is particularly strange is the practice of transferring cryptocurrencies to an address under the control of the SSU.”
