India’s cryptocurrency exchange Coinsecure has announced that it cannot repay customers their stolen bitcoins at this time. The exchange claims that while investigations are underway, permissions are needed from the authorities to start the claims process which it has not yet received.
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Repayment Delayed
Indian exchange Coinsecure has updated users regarding the disbursement of funds due to stolen bitcoins. The exchange previously confirmed that 438.31859715 BTC were stolen on April 8, worth approximately Rs 20 crore or US$3,067,220.
The exchange revealed on April 21 that it had started working on the claims process. “We are hoping that by the following weekend [April 28-29], we should get started and you should be able to submit your claims withdrawals requests.” However, that deadline has passed and the exchange is now saying “there has been a delay on that front,” elaborating:
When investigations are underway, we don’t have much of a say and do need permission from the authorities to start the compensation process, which we are yet to receive.
“There will be new contracts rolled out to all our users who held a balance on Coinsecure (INR and bitcoin),” the exchange added.
Working With Authorities
Coinsecure has been cooperating with the authorities to recover its lost BTC. The exchange suspects its Chief Security Office, Dr. Amitabh Saxena, was behind the theft. A complaint was filed with the Cyber Crime Cell of the Delhi Police on April 10. The authorities advised the exchange to “confiscate [the suspect’s] system for further investigation,” which it followed and collected Saxena’s laptop.
In a letter to the authorities, Coinsecure’s CEO Mohit Kalra wrote, “as the private keys are kept with Dr. Amitabh Saxena, we feel that he
