Czech Government Faces No-Confidence Vote After $45 Million Bitcoin Scandal
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A major political scandal is rocking the Czech Republic as Prime Minister Petr Fiala's government faces a no-confidence vote initiated by the opposition ANO party. The scandal stems from Justice Minister Pavel Blažek's alleged acceptance of a $45 million Bitcoin donation from a convicted drug trafficker.
From Donation to Political Wave
Blažek, a veteran member of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), resigned last week after media reports revealed that he accepted a donation from Tomas Jirikovsky, a cybercriminal who ran the Sheep Marketplace black market. Jirikovsky was convicted in 2017 and released in 2021. He has since sought to recover 1,500 BTC that were seized by the authorities.
The Bitcoins, now estimated at more than $45 million, were auctioned off by the government. The incident was widely reported by local media such as Deník N and Le Monde, sparking public outrage over the transparency and ethics of senior officials.
ANO demands accountability
“This government should resign immediately,” ANO Vice President Karel Havlicek said on national television. ANO is currently leading in the polls with 32% support, far ahead of the 19% of the ruling SPOLU coalition, which includes ODS, KDU-ČSL and TOP 09.
According to political analysts such as Jiří Pehe (New York University Prague), the scandal could seriously damage the reputation of Prime Minister Fiala, who is known to be a close friend and longtime associate of Blažek. “Many people may not believe that he knew nothing about it,” Pehe said.
Bitcoin and the Dark Web Trail
Tomas Jirikovsky is best known for running the Sheep Marketplace, a dark web drug-trafficking platform that was shut down after the theft of 5,400 BTC in 2013. The Bitcoin trail from the platform still influences the Czech legal and political system to this day.
Notably, another Bitcoin wallet linked to the Nucleus Marketplace, a dark web platform that was shut down in 2016, suddenly became active again in March, transferring about $77 million in Bitcoin after nearly a decade of silence. According to Arkham Intelligence, the platform’s main wallet still holds nearly $406 million in BTC.
Crisis of confidence ahead of national elections
The incident, which took place just months before parliamentary elections in October, has SPOLU’s leadership worried about its political future. The ineffective and opaque handling of the crisis could create a major opportunity for the ANO party led by former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš to regain power.
In a tense political climate and under intense public scrutiny, the upcoming no-confidence vote is not only a test for the Fiala government, but also a test of confidence in the legal and financial systems in one of the EU’s key Central European countries.