Czech government hit with no-confidence vote over $45M Bitcoin scandal

Czech Justice Minister Pavel Blazek resigned last month after the Justice Ministry auctioned off nearly 500 Bitcoin it received from a convicted online drug trafficker.

The Czech Republic’s main opposition party has called for a no-confidence vote in the government on Thursday, accusing it of corruption over a $45 million Bitcoin payment from a convicted criminal.

Alena Schillerova, vice chair of the right-wing ANO party, said in a Thursday post to X that her party felt there was “no choice” but to submit the no-confidence motion, which is scheduled for Tuesday.

The Czech Justice Ministry said on May 28 it had sold nearly 500 Bitcoin (BTC) for 1 billion Czech koruna ($45 million) in an auction after receiving it from Tomas Jirikovsky, who ran an online black market and was convicted of embezzlement, drug trafficking and weapons violations in 2017.

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