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Turkey Arrests 4 from Cryptocurrency Platform Vebitcoin over Fraud

A Turkish flag suspended between two skyscrapers flutters in the wind, in Istanbul, Thursday, April 23, 2020. (AP)
A Turkish flag suspended between two skyscrapers flutters in the wind, in Istanbul, Thursday, April 23, 2020. (AP)
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Turkey Arrests 4 from Cryptocurrency Platform Vebitcoin over Fraud

A Turkish flag suspended between two skyscrapers flutters in the wind, in Istanbul, Thursday, April 23, 2020. (AP)
A Turkish flag suspended between two skyscrapers flutters in the wind, in Istanbul, Thursday, April 23, 2020. (AP)

Turkish authorities arrested four people from cryptocurrency exchange platform Vebitcoin on Monday as part of a fraud investigation, state-owned Anadolu news agency said.

Authorities had previously blocked the onshore bank accounts of Vebitcoin after the company said it had stopped all activities, citing financial strains.

Vebitcoin is one of two cryptocurrency platforms being investigated in Turkey. Authorities have detained a total of 83 people since last Thursday as part of a separate investigation by Istanbul prosecutors into Thodex cryptocurrency platform over claims that it defrauded users.

Prosecutors asked for six of the detained people to be kept in jail pending trial, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said, while dozens of others were released while the investigation continues.

The Thodex platform, which had been handling daily cryptocurrency trade worth hundreds of millions of dollars, said on its website on Thursday it would be closed for four to five days due to a sale process.

Interpol issued a red notice for its founder and chief executive Faruk Fatih Ozer on Friday after a request by Ankara.

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Iran Says It Will Respond to Reimposition of UN Sanctions

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
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Iran Says It Will Respond to Reimposition of UN Sanctions

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. (Iranian Foreign Ministry)

Iran will react to any reimposition of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear program, the country's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday, without elaborating on what actions Tehran might take.

A French diplomatic source told Reuters last week that European powers would have to restore UN sanctions on Iran under the so-called "snapback mechanism" if there were no nuclear deal that guaranteed European security interests.

The "snapback mechanism" is a process that would reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran under a 2015 nuclear deal that lifted the measures in return for restrictions on Iran's nuclear program.

"The threat to use the snapback mechanism lacks legal and political basis and will be met with an appropriate and proportionate response from Iran," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told a press conference, without giving further details.

The 2015 deal with Britain, Germany, France, the US, Russia and China - known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - states that if the parties cannot resolve accusations of "significant non-performance" by Iran, the "snapback mechanism" process can be triggered by the 15-member UN Security Council.

"The European parties, who are constantly trying to use this possibility as a tool, have themselves committed gross and fundamental violations of their obligations under the JCPOA," Baghaei said.

"They have failed to fulfill the duties they had undertaken under the JCPOA, so they have no legal or moral standing to resort to this mechanism."

Western countries accuse Iran of plotting to build a nuclear weapon, which Tehran denies.

The United States pulled out of the deal in 2018 under the first administration of President Donald Trump, who called the agreement "weak".

Trump, whose second presidency began in January, has urged Tehran to return to nuclear negotiations on a new deal after a ceasefire was reached last month that ended a 12-day air war between Iran and Israel that destabilized the Middle East.

When asked if Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi would meet with Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, Baghaei said no date or location had been set for resuming the US-Iran nuclear talks.