Topic: {ANNOUNCEMENT} WBX Exchange Frozen - page 21. (Read 45404 times)

Hi chris,

Thanks for the transparency i appreciate it, please return users BTC using this forum or however you think is a open way in doing so safely, You still have Admin access to WBX and i will not change this until all BTC is returned also you can view the user database i left that open for that reason.

Andre

Andre, thanks for responding.  I think it's best that this happens out in the open so people can see what's going on.


As you can see from this thread, at least some of the clients want it done this way.  Some even suggest it has to be done this way.


OK, I thought you must have.  Just so you know, I have backups of the site from shortly before you locked me out.  As you know, the hosting company hasn't exactly had a good track record of looking after the server themselves, so I regularly made offsite backups.  That includes encrypted backups of the exchange's bitcoin wallet.  The wallet has a large keypool, so I will have access to any funds that are deposited into the exchange wallet for some time to come.  To properly minimise risk to the exchange I would advise you to transfer the remaining funds from the exchange wallet (less than 1 BTC I think) then start from scratch with a new wallet.

I also still have admin access to the WBX site, so can see client information.  Disable that by setting "is_admin" to 0 for my row in the users table:
  UPDATE users SET is_admin=0 WHERE uid=1001;
or use the web interface to the database.


I have the 1768 BTC and will keep it safe until it is clear who it should be given to.  I've proven in this thread that I have it, and everyone can watch the address where it is being held to make sure it isn't being spent.

It seems to me that we need to find out how much of the frozen AUD will be returned by the bank before we can know how to split up the BTC.  Do you agree?

Hi Chris,

to answer your questions

1. No i have no indication when this issue will be resolved, when my accounts were first frozen they did give me a time frame of 6weeks to 6months

2. Yes i Intend on returning all funds once i have access to these funds but unfortunately i can't guarantee it.

3. If this is what the clients of WBX want then yes i am happy to comply and listen to the responses.

4. Yes i locked you out as i had to minimise further risk to the Exchange Database and code, sorry Chris its nothing personal i am just protecting my self and WBX client information.

5. Yes i have returned correspondence on these issues and these accounts have been locked (unverifiyed).

6. Chris you have full control over the 1768 BTC as they are in your possession  if you want to handle returning these BTC to clients then i am happy for you to do that, I have other major issues do deal with at the moment, i just want to know that WBX users BTC is safe and will be returned its one less problem for me to sort out.

message to all..... Yes i could have closed down the site and vanished but i didn't, i can't help the fact that I've been scammed through my bank accounts and now have no control over these accounts, these scammers new that the exchange was solid and secure so they attacked me via the banks knowingly that they will get away with it, i am honestly sorry this has happened and you the user has been caught up in this mess, i have lost a lot of personal money through this but i still intend to continue the fight in returning your Funds, what else's can i say.

please be patient.

Andre 

I just received an email from Andre.  It doesn't address any of the flags I raised about suspicious looking accounts on the exchange with positive BTC balances, and doesn't answer my question about my access to the web host no longer working.

All it says is:


I replied asking if we could discuss it in this thread:


Andre, can you address the concerns I and others have raised please?

1. Is there any news from the bank about when you can expect to have access to the WBX accounts again?
2. What happens if the bank never releases the frozen funds.  Will you be paying their balances back in full?
3. If not, should you not wait before allowing users to withdraw bitcoins, since the assets of WBX should be divided equally between its creditors.
4. Did you intentionally lock me out of the hosting account?  I'm no longer able to access the code or the database.
5. I've emailed you about several accounts on the exchange which have suspicious trading patterns, but you've not commented.  It seems you want me to return the bitcoins so that they can withdraw them - have you thought that through?

Yes, I thought that was a useful mechanism.  I forgot to check yesterday about the receiving address.

Indeed.  I'm simply demonstrating that I really do have control of the coins I claim to, by announcing the move and the new address a day before the move happened.

Certainly looks like a move of coins.  I'm assuming that is an address you have, rather than sending to some random location.

I just sent them.  You can see the transaction here:
  http://blockchain.info/address/1DodGYjF5LFoKg186jANZV9U8znXjagSzS

It's currently unconfirmed.

It looks like I'm about an hour early - the forum is telling me it's 04:25 PM when it's really 5:31 PM.

I would heavily suggest to NOT send him or the website any further BTC. To me it still smells like a scam so I would be worried that he uses his own admin rights and grants himself BTC which he withdraws. Plus: it should be clarified how the BTC are split.

Thanks a lot for your efforts so far, dooglus. highly appreciated. I can understand that you want to get rid of the burden. Potentially we could identify someone respectable from the forum (e.g. phantomcircuit, nefario, theymos...) who would be willing to take care of the BTC, temporarily. Any suggestions?

I agree with Patrick. In insolvency cases all creditors share equal rights. So we should make a list to see how much AUD are outstanding, add the amount of outstanding BTC (I assume 1768) multiplied with current BTC price on the time of payout. Then we take the amount of "assets" (BTC in AUD) and divide it by it's creditors.
There should be a certain deadline (e.g. End of April?) until when everyone would have to enter their claims and then the BTC get divided among the creditors.

I (like others) have done a lot of trading through the exchange.  Several thousand BTC and several thousand dollars.  I was unlucky that I deposited AUD and needed to withdraw it almost immediately, and I'm stuck with $3000-ish in limbo.

I agree that all creditors should have equal shares/rights to the assets of a failed exchange, and I also acknowledge the potential for bias in that call.  But the law allows for voidable transactions to prevent undue enrichment of one creditor over another. 

I also appreciate the position Dooglus is in and admire him for sitting on the funds as they stand.  At some stage a register of claims should be made if Andre is not going to make an appearance anywhere.

normally when a company is shut down, no creditors are unduly favoured.

if wbx has to sell it's furniture to repay creditors... does he sell it for AUD or BTC?

this is why i say any capital, whether it's btc, aud, or furniture, should be liquidated and distributed proportionally.

Andre really needs to take ownership of returning funds whether AUD or BTC to their rightful owners. Until he can show the ability to do that, then you should not return the BTC to him.

I have a lot of AUD in the exchange pending withdrawal for a long time now which I am very concerned about.

i have a comment:

the burden of this disaster should not fall solely on those who's lost funds were denominated in AUD.

i think any type of capital available to WBX should be distributed among all creditors, not just go to those who were lucky enough to have a BTC balance at the right moment.

There's a new posting on the news page at WBX, presumably from Andre:


I have a few comments:

1. I've never been appointed any position at WBX.  This is the first I heard about being their "Technical lead".  I set up the exchange for Andre originally, using the open source Intersango code, and made improvements as requested, and also agreed to hold Bitcoins offsite for Andre rather than leaving the whole wallet on the shared hosting server that WBX runs from.  I don't think that makes me "Technical lead".

2. I am still holding 1768 Bitcoins for WBX.  Until recently I have been depositing them back to the exchange on an as-needed basis, to keep the number of coins actually in the wallet on the exchange server to a minimum.  I used to try to keep between 200 and 300 coins on the server to allow for day to day withdrawals, but since the Linode incident I've been keeping the exchange wallet pretty much empty.  Here's a link to the address the coins are held at, so anyone can verify that I have them still: http://blockchain.info/address/1KnAveDXHDSdXmsNdE5itum459dkNp2pnW.  Actually, doesn't prove much, just that 1768 coins are owned by someone.  So around this time tomorrow I'll move them all to 1DodGYjF5LFoKg186jANZV9U8znXjagSzS.  Perhaps someone could quote this bit before I do so.

3. On March 15th I noticed that I could no longer log in to the WBX web host.  I don't know if Andre has changed the password, or if it's a technical problem of some kind.  Each time I attempt to log in, I see:
  "Received disconnect from [IP Address]: 2: Too many authentication failures for [username]".
I immediately emailed Andre asking for clarification, but have received no response so far.

4. Also on March 15th I received an email from Andre asking me to send him the 1768.0540 BTC he thinks I am holding so that he can start returning them to the exchange users.  I suspect the 0.0540 discrepancy is due to network transaction fees.  I replied saying that I have been returning the coins as and when they are requested for withdrawal by the exchange users, but that the most recent withdrawal request looked suspicious, and that I was awaiting his decision about what to do about that withdrawal request before returning funds to the exchange that would allow it to go through.  I received no reply to that so far.

5. Although my login to the web host is no longer working, my login on the exchange is still an administrator account.  This is confusing; if Andre was trying to lock me out of the exchange then leaving me an account with admin privileges seems like an oversight.  Using the admin account I am able to see that nobody has attempted to withdraw any Bitcoins since before my login stopped working until just a few minutes ago.  Now another user is attempting to withdraw Bitcoins, but again it looks suspicious.  If Andre was reachable I'd recommend that he try to get further ID from the user, since PDF mobile phone bills are pretty easy to edit and so aren't much good as a proof of ID.

I don't want to be holding these Bitcoins any more, but I do want them to go back to their rightful owners.  This leaves me not knowing what to do for the best.  Does anyone have any words of wisdom?

+1 - I'm in as well

i vote for the wild west option.

He needs to, pay our money and btc back.

Happy to support any legal proceedings against Andre if he doesn't surface soon.