Polish Bitcoin exchange BitMarket.pl is reported to be having some financial issues after having its bank account suspended by General Electric Co. owned Bank BPH.

The company claims that its accounts were suspended January 26th due to  “outstanding debt and lack of credentials,” suggesting that the company was at the very least in debt, if not in financial trouble

Founder Michal Pleban spoke to CoinDesk and said that that reason for the bank’s decision had its roots in law enforcement, via an investigation by the local district attorney’s office. In particular the investigation is said to be into a transaction that involved stolen funds.

Bitmarket.pl is claiming to be a unwitting victim, saying that they never received notification from the bank or authorities, and claims the bank’s compliance team made a mistake in closing the account.

The spin plays all the right cards: small Bitcoin exchange taken on by evil American owned banks unfairly, but there’s one small problem with that: it’s likely rubbish.

Bitmarket.pl has come up a number of times in SiliconANGLE’s ongoing research into Bitcoin’s use in HYIP scams.

Although not a huge exchange, Bitmarket.pl is regularly mentioned as an exchange of choice by HYIP scammers; in all likelihood Bitmarket.pl would know that at least some of the transactions going through the business pertained to illegal ponzi schemes.

Ironically as we reported January 16th Bitmarket.pl itself was scammed by Tadas Kasputis’ EgoPay.

The initial defense is to say that Bitmarket.pl doesn’t know what people using its exchange services ultimately do with their funds, which to an extent is fair, however consider a service like PayPal; they don’t know what people swapping funds through PayPal accounts are doing, but (and this is the key point) when they discover anything untoward they suspend the account. Bitmarket.pl at least on what we can see here may have well and truly have been turning a blind eye to what account holders were doing with funds, and that inaction has caused its current problems.

Bitmarket.pl has said that they will continue trading and attempt to set up a new bank account with a “more Bitcoin friendly bank.”

photo credit: btckeychain via photopin cc