Authorities detain convicted trafficker Tomáš Jiřikovský in probe over bitcoin gifted to Ministry of Justice, with the case expanding to money laundering and drug charges.
Updated Aug 15, 2025, 7:17 p.m. Published Aug 15, 2025, 3:29 p.m.
Czech police have detained convicted drug trafficker Tomáš Jiřikovský, the man behind a multi-billion-dollar bitcoin donation to the country’s Ministry of Justice, escalating a scandal that has already claimed a cabinet minister.
The Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office said Thursday that the National Centre for the Fight Against Organised Crime (NCOZ) intervened in the case, securing individuals and evidence, according to a report by Czech news website Echo24. The probe now targets suspected money laundering and illegal drug handling, separated from a broader investigation that also examined abuse of power.
Jiřikovský was convicted and served a prison sentence for running a darknet drug marketplace called Sheep Marketplace. He was arrested in 2016 and subsequently convicted of embezzlement and drug trafficking, serving four years of a nine-year prison sentence.
The arrest was the result of a raid by police on a house in Břeclav where Jiřikovský was staying.
The bitcoin donation case rocked Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s administration only months before the country’s election laster this year.
The government survived a vote of no confidence filed by opposition party ANO, which leads the polls at present ahead of October’s vote.
Former Justice Minister Pavel Blažek resigned in June over the affair, having accepted the donation of 468 BTC, which was sold for roughly 1 billion Czech koruna, worth around $45 million.
His successor, Eva Decroix, commissioning an independent audit from Grant Thornton. Released in late July, the audit concluded the ministry should not have accepted the bitcoin, warning it likely originated from criminal proceeds and could constitute a criminal offense.
Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.
Jamie Crawley
Jamie has been part of CoinDesk’s news team since February 2021, focusing on breaking news, Bitcoin tech and protocols and crypto VC. He holds BTC, ETH and DOGE.
AI Boost
“AI Boost” indicates a generative text tool, typically an AI chatbot, contributed to the article. In each and every case, the article was edited, fact-checked and published by a human. Read more about CoinDesk’s AI Policy.
More For You
U.S. Fed Officially Scraps Specialist Group Meant to Oversee Crypto Issues
The Federal Reserve has shuttered the Novel Activities Supervision Program it built in 2023 that was — in part — meant to focus on banks’ crypto activity.
What to know:
- The U.S. Federal Reserve is closing a novel-activities program that was meant to focus a spotlight on banks’ crypto activity.
- The Wall Street banking regulator said in a brief statement that its expertise has grown in the two years since the program was established, and digital assets oversight can now be moved back into the regular course of supervision.