Police launch major raid in bitcoin case, detain donor of billion-crown cryptocurrency gift

The National Center against Organized Crime (NCOZ) and the High Public Prosecutor’s Office in Olomouc launched a major overnight raid in connection with the bitcoin case that shook the ruling coalition earlier this year. Among those detained was Tomáš Jiřikovský, who donated bitcoins worth nearly one billion crowns to the Ministry of Justice.

“The NCOZ is currently carrying out intensive criminal proceedings in the case linked to the donation of bitcoins to the Ministry of Justice. Investigators are conducting steps both to clarify the matter and to secure persons and assets involved,” the prosecutor’s office said in a press release.

The case is being investigated on suspicion of money laundering and the unlawful production and handling of narcotic and psychotropic substances and poisons.

In March, under then justice minister Pavel Blažek, the ministry accepted a cryptocurrency donation valued at roughly CZK 957 million, apparently without checking its origins. He resigned from his post when the scandal broke.