The Czech government has weathered a political storm this week and survived a vote without confidence triggered by a $ 45 million Bitcoin payment from a convicted criminal.
The scandal has shaken Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s administration months before national elections, Reuters reports.
The payment of 468 Bitcoin was made to the state by a man who was previously imprisoned for driving a market for darkness called sheep market.
The donation was accepted by the then Minister of Justice Pavel Blazek, who later retired in the middle of setbacks on behalf of the government. Bitcoin was sold for approx. 1 billion Czech Koruna worth about $ 45 million.
The opposition party Ano, which is in voting before the October vote, filed a confidence without confidence and accused the prevailing coalition of potential help in the money laundering of illegal assets as the source of BTC is unclear.
Critics say the government should have involved prosecutors or police instead of accepting potentially tainted cryptophy. After two days of debate, the movement in the lower house failed, where Fiala’s coalition retains a majority.
Blazek still insisted that he acted legally in accepting the donation, which amounted to approx. 30% of crypto found on the man’s returned devices.
The donor’s motives remain unclear. The case shook the government in a country whose central bank earlier this year approved a proposal to study Bitcoin as a reserve asset. Czech national bank manager Ales Michl has even said Bitcoin should not be “lumped together” with crypto.
The Polymarket -Dealers are currently seeing the most important opposition party, Ano, winning the October parliamentary election. Experienced odds of this result are currently 92%, while Blazek’s ODS Party’s chances are only 6%.
