Czech Justice Minister Resigns Over Questionable Bitcoin Donation
Date: 2025-06-02 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: IN WORLD
Czech Justice Minister Pavel Blažek has announced his resignation after details of a suspicious cryptocurrency donation surfaced in the media. Last week, the ministry reported selling 500 bitcoins at a government auction, raising about 1 billion crowns (approximately $45 million). The money was planned to be used to modernize the legal system, combat drugs in prisons, and improve working conditions for prison staff.
It later emerged that the funds could have been linked to Tomas Jirikovský, who was previously convicted of operating on the darknet platform Sheep Marketplace, known for selling illegal goods. According to journalists, in March, Jirikovský offered the Justice Ministry to donate part of the bitcoin. Blažek accepted the gift without checking the source of the cryptocurrency.
This caused a sharp reaction from the opposition, especially given the upcoming parliamentary elections. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala chose to distance himself from the minister, after which Blažek voluntarily resigned from his post on May 30. In his statement, he emphasized that he had no knowledge of the illegal origin of the funds and did not want to harm the reputation of the current government. He also noted that Jirikovsky’s possible remorse could have been a sincere motive for his donation.
Jirikovsky had previously served time on charges of embezzlement, drug trafficking, and violating weapons storage regulations. After his release in 2021, he tried to return 1,500 bitcoins seized during his arrest. Authorities suspected that the cryptocurrency could be linked to another shadow platform called Nucleus, which was shut down after his arrest. Despite this, Jirikovsky claimed that he acquired the bitcoins legally and managed to keep them after his release.
It is worth noting that in March, a representative of the Czech National Bank warned against hastily including bitcoin in state reserves, citing the instability of the cryptocurrency market and the lack of clear regulation.
