Good day TyGrr-Bot shareholders and the Bitcoin community,
We are here to inform that significant amount of funds were frozen in the Tygrr-Bot’s Mt Gox account. The name of the account is “TyGrr-Bot”. The TyGrr-Bot account was set up by Chaang-Noi’s wife as she is a key member of the TyGrr-Bot operation. The account was AML verified and approved by Mt. Gox.
Magical Tux was made aware. Magical Tux personally gave permission to Chaang-Noi to allow his wife to set up an account and have it AML verified. The AML was not only approved but the limit on the account was raised when requested.
On April 19th Chaang-Noi’s wife sent an international wire to her own bank account in Thailand. The name on the bank account matches the name on the AML verification documents.
After this international wire was sent Chaang-Noi contacted Mt Gox staff (Not Magical Tux) to find out if an AML verified account could send money to their spouse. It was repeatedly made clear by a member of Mt Gox staff that this would not be a problem.
Two international wires were then sent to Chaang-Noi’s bank account in the USA.
Chaang-Noi’s wife opened a Mt Gox support ticket on the 27th and Mark Karpeles responded on the 28th. Less than 5 hours after his first response Mark Karpeles reported that these attempted transaction were illegal and were being reported to law enforcement agencies. Mark also noted that the funds could not be returned to the Mt Gox account because of “risk”. Terrorism and money laundering were mentioned however as no one has seen the copy of the police report we do not know what really has happened. Information about this has been requested twice but not yet responded to.
We have reason to suspect that Magical Tux is Mark Karpeles but this information has not been confirmed. If this is true we are confused by Mt Gox’s actions. Nevertheless we are ready to go to any court to defend charges made against us.
We would like to provide supporting information.
All of Chaang-Noi’s personal chats with Magical Tux in #MtGox on freenode on edited and in full
Chaang-Noi> Hello, are you around?
yes
would it be best to use my wifes id and a telephone bill with her name?
that'd work
im going to ahve to wait a while for the bill to come in :/
the address will be in thai. I assume that will be okay?
we'll try
how long does this normaly take? and do i risk getting my funds frozen while you look into this?
can take a couple of business days
okay that is not too bad. Thanks
Hello,
I would like to check on my account being verified. It has been about 10 days so far and I have heard nothing back.
Hi
About 2 weeks ago you asked me to send you my documents to get verified.
I did this but no responce.
I was told it would take 3 business days.
Is there anything I can do to help?
I wont add funds until I am verrified, I can not risk it getting frozen
what's your account ?
do you want the user name?
yes
TyGrr-Bot
I can see an email was sent to you on Mon 02 Apr 2012 confirming you were aml verified
oh, wow, let me check and see if i got that, if so i deeply apoligize!
Yes, I am very sorry about the trouble. I do have the e-mail!
can I at any time expand my limit?
i would like to leave it low now but might need to expand it later.
also I would like to say you guys seemed to verify me in about 24 hours. this was unexpected and why i missed it. again that you.
[17:26:20] can I at any time expand my limit? <- email [email protected] for more details
thanks mate! very happy you got the verification done in a day! thats awesome! peace!
Hi, Would you like to try and resolve the issue of the frozen TyGrr-Bot account here and now?
We would like to add supporting E-mails from Mt. Gox.
April 2nd
Dear TyGrr-Bot,
We are pleased to inform you that the identification documentation you have submitted has been reviewed, and your account has been upgraded to "Verified" status.
If you would like to request a withdrawal limit increase (up to 10x your current daily limit, and up to 5x your current monthly limit), please reply back to this email with the below.
Wallet (BTC/USD/ETC):
New Daily Limit:
Wallet (USD/EUR/ETC):
New Monthly Limit:
We sincerely apologize for the delays and any inconvenience which you have suffered in relation to the account verification process. If you continue to experience any issues, please do not hesitate to contact Mt.Gox Support.
April 19th
Hello,
We are pleased to inform you that the limits which you requested have now been applied to your account.
If you would like to make further enquiries in relation to this, please do not hesitate to contact Mt.Gox Support.
Kind regards,
Mt.Gox Support
Email: [email protected]
April 28th
Hi,
We confirmed transfers going to two different individuals, in two different countries. Because of financial laws on terrorism and money laundering, we are required to identify the owner of each account opened on MtGox, and ensure transactions are done by the individual registered with us.
Since this was not the case, we are investigating the issue and may forward the case to the appropriate law enforcement if required.
In the meantime we will need notarized physical copies of identification for both individuals you tried to transfer funds to, including original or notarized copy of utility bill. If your notary offers it, please also ask for an apostille.
Thanks,
Mark
MtGox.com Team
April 28th
Hi,
Please rest assured that this case is indeed being reported to the police. Until we understand why you have multiple identities in different countries, we cannot take the risk of executing the operations requested.
Thanks,
Mark
MtGox.com Team
We are very confused by this reaction as the photo on Chaang-Noi’s avatar has not only a photo of Chaang-Noi but also of his wife who is AML verified.
A request has been sent to for a clarification as to why the documents need to be resent as has a second request for information about the ongoing police investigation.
We are also confused as to why this was reported to law enforcement as what we have done is not a crime in Thailand, Japan or the USA. If this violated the policy of MT. Gox we would like to know why this policy has not been posted on the Mt Gox website or in its terms of service.
The point of this thread is not to attack Mt Gox but is to be informative of actions that have already taken place and to seek clarification of AML law and Mt Gox's policy.
We are willing to work with Mt Gox and law enforcement to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. Chaang-Noi and his wife’s lawyer in the USA have been made aware of the situation.
We have notified Mt Gox of this thread and hope they will take part or at least make note of helpful ideas for the betterment of the bitcoin world.
Local rules.
This thread was started to inform TyGrr-Bot stockholders and the community of the above situation. I would request that all questions or comments about TyGrr-Bot to be done in the TyGrr-Bot thread as it is not directly related. I would request that there is no trolling or off topic comments. I would request that there are no personal attacks in the thread on anyone involved, particularly Mt Gox staff. Helpful and polite productive criticism of policy is welcomed.
What we hope to accomplish is positive discussion on conflict resolution. Also positive discussion on related topics such as AML law, if you are an expert on the issue please inform the community.