Indian Exchange Postpones Repaying Stolen Bitcoins – No Permission From Authorities

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.

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.
​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 is making a false story to divert our attention and he might have a role to play in this entire incident.”
If all the stolen bitcoins are recovered, Coinsecure said that all customers’ bitcoin holdings will be repaid per balance on April 9. Otherwise, the exchange explained:
We will apply the lock in rates as of the 9th of April, 2018. 10% of the coin holding balance will be refunded in BTC and 90% will be returned in INR.
To help with the recovery of lost coins, the exchange has also appealed to the community for help and has put up a 10% bounty.
Even amid the turmoil surrounding Coinsecure, Venezuela announced last week that the Indian exchange has been certified to operate in Venezuela in hopes that it will list the country’s new currency, the Petro.