Bulgaria has closed its investigation into cryptocurrency lender Nexo, finding no wrongdoing.
The Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office has closed its criminal case against cryptocurrency lender Nexo, finding no evidence of money laundering, tax crimes, computer fraud or other criminal activity.
According to an official statement, the main reason for this decision is that cryptocurrency assets are not considered financial instruments in the country and fall outside the scope of the law on payment services and systems. The charges span from 2018 to January 2023 and alleged that defendants Antoni Trenchev, Kosta Kanchev, Kalin Metodiev and Trayan Nikolov participated in an organized crime group.
“The Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office’s dismissal of all charges against Nexo and its executives and finding that no crime was committed makes it clear that the entire attack on Nexo was political and should never have happened in the first place,” Nexo co said. -Founder and Managing Partner Antoni Trenchev told The Block.
“This also goes a long way in clearing our name and is a vindication of all the good actors in the cryptocurrency industry,” Trenchev added. “We are very pleased with this result.”
Bulgarian police raid
On January 12, authorities raided Nexo’s Bulgarian offices on suspicion of money laundering and tax violations. At the time, Trenchev called it “absurd.”
Two months later, a Nexo user from California sued the company, claiming that Nexo fraudulently induced users to take out loans for digital assets.
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About the author
MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020, joining just before Bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for publications covering all cryptocurrency-related news, preferring NFTs, metaverse, web3 games, fundraising, crime, hacking, and cryptocurrency ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. X You can follow MK at @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.
