[Infowarrior] - DHS freezes accounts between Dwolla and bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox

[Richard Forno]

Dept. of Homeland Security freezes accounts between Dwolla and bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox

 By Michael Carney 
On May 14, 2013


In the first governmental action against bitcoins, the Department of Homeland Security served the Dwolla mobile payment service with a court order requiring it to immediately cease all account activities with the  Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange. Dwolla has complied with this order.

The news was first reported by Betabeat citing an email that OkCupid co-founder Chris Coyne received from the Dwolla and posted to Twitter. Other users have subsequently reported receiving similar communications from the federal agency and having difficulty accessing funds transferred to Mt. Gox from Dwolla in the last 24 hours.

There are certainly more questions than answers at this stage. We are prompted to wonder whether this is this the first of a series of governmental assaults on the exchanges? That’s what they’d target if they want to put the kibosh on bitcoin. Or, is this a case where DHS is investigating some individual or organization who may have used bitcoins, via Dwolla, for some potentially nefarious or terroristic reasons?

Members of the PandoDaily team have spoken to sources close to the bitcoin ecosystem and have been hearing that it’s likely the former.

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http://pandodaily.com/2013/05/14/dept-of-homeland-security-freezes-accounts-between-dwolla-and-bitcoin-exchange-mt-gox/


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