Czech police have detained convicted drug trafficker Tomáš Jiřikovský, the man behind a multi-billion-dollar bitcoin donation to the country’s Ministry of Justice, escalating a scandal that has already claimed a cabinet minister.
The Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office said Thursday that the National Centre for the Fight Against Organised Crime (NCOZ) intervened in the case, securing individuals and evidence, according to a report by Czech news website Echo24. The probe now targets suspected money laundering and illegal drug handling, separated from a broader investigation that also examined abuse of power.
Jiřikovský was convicted and served a prison sentence for running a darknet drug marketplace called Sheep Marketplace. He was arrested in 2016 and subsequently convicted of embezzlement and drug trafficking, serving four years of a nine-year prison sentence.
The arrest was the result of a raid by police on a house in Břeclav where Jiřikovský was staying.
The bitcoin donation case rocked Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s administration only months before the country’s election laster this year.
The government survived a vote of no confidence filed by opposition party ANO, which leads the polls at present ahead of October’s vote.
Former Justice Minister Pavel Blažek resigned in June over the affair, having accepted the donation of 468 BTC, which was sold for roughly 1 billion Czech koruna, worth around $45 million.
His successor, Eva Decroix, commissioning an independent audit from Grant Thornton. Released in late July, the audit concluded the ministry should not have accepted the bitcoin, warning it likely originated from criminal proceeds and could constitute a criminal offense.