Crypto Capital’s Oz Yosef Indicted On Fraud, Bitfinex Allegations Confirmed

Crypto Capital’s Oz Yosef, who is the principle of the company, was indicted on three criminal counts by the US Attorney’s Office of the Sothern District of New York on Wednesday, October 23. This means that the allegations that Bitfinex made earlier this week as we read in the blockchain news.

The statements made by Bitfinex’s general counsel Stuart Hoegner made on Friday turned out to be true and according to the court documents, Crypto Capital’s Oz Yosef has been indicted on conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.

In one of the acts cited by the court documents, Yosef sent a text to an unnamed source ‘’regarding the need to transfer $10,000,000 to a bank located in the Bahamas, knowing that the funds would be transferred from a bank account maintained with a bank located in Manhattan, New York.’’

Following the criminal investigations by a few international bodies including the US authorizes, the funds of Crypto Capital were frozen and approximately $880 million of the funds belonged to the crypto exchange Bitfinex which maintained a relationship with the company. The lost funds were the reason for a new investigation by the New York Attorney’s office regarding the relationship with Tether and Bitfinex.

On Thursday, Crypto Capital president Ivan Manuel Molina Lee was extradited to Poland by the Polish authorities on the charges of money laundering. He is now charged with laundering 1.5 billion zloty or more than $390 million. After he was arrested, Hoegner released a statement on behalf of the exchange which claimed Bitfinex was a victim of fraud. Hoegner also stated that Yosef has been already indicted by the Southern District of New York although the court documents were not yet released to support that.

As a result of the indictment, Yosef will forfeit the listed assets ‘’representing the number of proceeds traceable to the Commission of said offenses.’’ The court documents named a list of assets including the ones from Crypto Capital’s principal Reginal Fowler who was charged with running a shadow banking service by the US Attorney’s office at the beginning of this spring, this year.