Bitcoin, the Milan prosecutor’s office investigates The Rock Trading

MILAN. The hypotheses of crime for the moment are generic: embezzlement and fraud. After three different complaints arrived at the Milan prosecutor’s office, a file was opened on The Rock Trading, the first and most important cryptocurrency exchange in Italy which has not been operational since mid-February: «The company, operating in the exchange of crypto-activity and registered in the register of virtual currency operators, held by the Oam (Organismo Agenti e Mediatori), for a few days, without providing adequate justifications, has interrupted the operation of the platform, effectively preventing customers from accessing to their digital assets», writes the Milan prosecutor, Marcello Viola, in a note.

Thus, the investigators of the economic and financial police unit with their colleagues of the special currency police unit this morning searched the company’s offices in the Milanese district of Porta Romana, the other offices in Genoa and Padua and also the homes of the two founders, Andrea Medri and Davide Barbieri. Furthermore, investigations of a financial nature are underway, aimed at verifying the management of liquidity by the company, as well as the destination of the sums collected. It is not yet clear how much the total value of the investments amounts to.

While a file on the platform was also opened by the Florence prosecutor’s office, the investigations revealed, “in addition to the blocking of operations, the interruption of relations with the national credit institution which, since the establishment of the company, had provided to the platform the account relationships through which to operate, as well as some violations relating to the correct preparation of the financial statements by the company”.