Key Data

• Trading Name:Bitconvert Ltd/TheChange
• Legal Entity: Bitconvert Ltd
• Activities: crypto payment processor
• Location: Malta
• Regulations: unregulated
• Key People: Loukas Kokkinos and Petri Tuokko

Bitconvert Ltd is a Malta-registered company operating the crypto payment processor TheChange. Its directors are Loukas Kokkinos and Petri Tuokko. TheChange has been set to “site under maintenance” since Fintelegram reported about its activities. Moreover, bank accounts have been frozen, and a former partner filed lawsuits for not paying them.

Bank account freezing order

Maltese court documents reveal that Bitconvert has a garnishee order filed against it by a Bulgarian company named Trustnet Limited. The bank account freezing order is €80,000, while the share capital of Bitconvert is a mere €1,200. It is unknown whether these monies are frozen in Maltese banks, but a court decision shows that six Maltese banks were informed of this freezing order.

Millions per months

The court documents reveal that in December 2019, Bitconvert was processing between 3M to 8M Euro per month. Well, that’s quite impressive for an unregulated crypto payment processor in Malta. Much of the volume has for sure been acquired from the operators of scams. Bitconvert has provided these numbers in court documents, which are now public.

This admission clearly shows that Bitconvert was operating TheChange without any license while claiming to be an applicant with the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) to become a regulated virtual finance service provider in the definition of the Virtual Financial Assets Act.

These court documents show that MFSA allowed this company to operate without a license. This is contrary to what regulations clearly state. The MFSA has been scrutinized by Moneyval, with Malta likely to be greylisted in the coming months.

Conclusion

We rate the company on Red