☢️ Canadian Crypto Exchange ezBtc Accused of Gambling Away $9.5M in User Funds ☢️
The Canadian cryptocurrency trading platform ezBtc and its founder, David Smillie, are accused of gambling away approximately 13 million Canadian dollars ($9.5 million) of user funds.
A panel from the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC), a provincial regulator, has found that ezBtc diverted customer investments for personal use, including gambling.
Operating between 2016 and 2019, ezBtc attracted significant investments, amassing over 2,300 Bitcoin and more than 600 Ether from its users.
ezBtc Went Offline After Stealing User Funds
The platform claimed that all user funds were securely stored in cold storage.
However, in September 2019, ezBtc went offline permanently, and by 2022, it had been officially dissolved.
“The transfers to the two gambling websites were sometimes direct from ezBtc, and sometimes indirect from ezBtc to Smillie’s exchange accounts and then to the gambling websites,” they wrote