State scandal. The Minister of Czech justice, Pavel Blazek, resigned after accepting a controversial donation of $ 45 million in Bitcoin from Tomas Jirikovsky, a convicted criminal. The latter, linked to the illegal platform Sheep Marketplacehad proposed this gift in March. Mr. Blazek, without verifying the origin of the funds, accepted, claiming that this reflected the desire to « Repentance » by Tomas Jirikovsky. This transaction aroused a police investigation and a strong public reaction, forcing the minister to leave his post to avoid harming the government’s reputation. Back on this case.
- The Minister of Czech justice, Pavel Blazek, resigned after accepting a controversial donation of $ 45 million in bitcoin of a convicted criminal, Tomas Jirikovsky.
- This scandal led to a police investigation and a strong public reaction, forcing the minister to leave his post to preserve the government’s reputation.
A Bitcoin gift that causes scandal
The Minister of Czech justice, Pavel Blazektherefore resigned after accepting a controversial gift of $ 45 million in Bitcoin From Tomas Jirikovsky, a condemned criminal. The controversy broke out on May 28 after the ministry has announcement On X having raised nearly a billion Czech crowns (around $ 45 million) by selling auction nearly 500 bitcoins.
These funds were intended for projects such as the digitization of the judicial system, the fight against drug use in prisons and the improvement of housing for prison personnel.
However, the Czech media Denik n has revealed that cryptocurrency came from Tomas Jirikovskya criminal sentenced behind Sheep Marketplacea platform of Dark Web known for the sale of illegal goods.
In March, Mr. Jirikovsky’s lawyer had approached the minister, offering A third of Bitcoin as a donation to the Ministry of Justice. The latter had then accepted, without trying to know the origin of the cryptocurrencyand he even has assertive retrospectively that he had « No way to know the origin of funds ».
He finally declared at a press conference Last Thursday that this gift « Reflected Tomas Jirikovsky’s desire to repent » But everything is not so simple.
A case that drops the Minister of Justice
This gentleman Jirikovsky was sentenced in 2017 for embezzlement, drug trafficking and arms violations. And since his prison release in 2021, he has been looking to recover 1,500 bitcoins seizure At the time of his arrest.
During sound trialthe Czech authorities suspected that the funds were linked to Nucleusanother marketplace of the Dark Web closed just after its arrest. Despite this, he maintained that his bitcoins had been acquired legallywhich allowed him to find them after having served his sentence!
Facing the pressure growing and only four months old from the legislative elections, the Prime Minister Petr Fiala has distanced himself from Pavel Blazekyet a longtime political ally. Finally, the minister was pushed to resign on May 30:
“I am not aware of any illegal action. However, I do not wish to harm the reputation of the government or the association in power ”.
Pavel Blazek, Minister of Czech justice – Source: X account
The Czech Republic is one of the countries that study the possibility to use Bitcoin as reserve assetsbut this story risks, once again, to throw stigma into the cryptos sector. Hopefully the resignation of the Minister of Justice will end the controversy and that the country will not return to its crypto projects because of that.