Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: Bitcoinica MtGox account compromised
by
Phinnaeus Gage
on 13/07/2012, 21:27:19 UTC
Once again, someone with a US IP succeed to get Bitcoinica's account credential which did not trigger any alarms since they were fully identified. Since Bitconica's account was a verified account the owner of this account asked (This happened when Zhou was still controlling Bitconica) to have his limits lifted to the maximum possible, giving the possibility to the thief to move Bitcoinica's assets to another external account (External to MtGox).

-- EDIT --

We would like to stress that Mt.Gox Verified Bitconica as a Company and NOT as an Individual.


it would not be plausible for mt. gox to not know about the change in ownership in april.

did mt. gox really allow this new company to use an account at mt. gox that did not belong to them (i.e., use an account that was verfied under a different name)?

after the change in ownership, there should have been a new account created (and verified).  because the old company didn't have any other source of income, deposits to the old company's accounts should have dropped towards zero.  

the kyc of aml/kyc is to know the source of the funds the customer is depositing.  mt. gox wouldn't know the source of funds if the verified owner of the account sold the business and has no other business.  these further deposits to "the bitcoinica account" should not have been made available for transfer or withdrawal until the source of the funds could be verified as truly belonging to the previously verified owner of the account.

it looks like there were multiple changes in ownership.  first was xwaylab (delaware), then [opaque change well known] then the bitcoinica lp of new zealand.

bitcoinica lp should not have been allowed to deposit and withdaw funds in an account where the verified owner is anything other than bitcoinica lp.

here is some history:

  • On 2012/01/30 Bitcoin Consultancy became Bitcoinica Consultancy Ltd. (*1)
  • On 2012/03/22 Bitcoinica Consultancy Ltd became the General Partner of the newly formed Bitcoinica Limited Partnership (*2)
  • On 2012/03/27 Bitcoin Consultancy was retained to perform a comprehensive security audit. (*3)
  • On 2012/04/24 Bitcoin Consultancy took over ownership and daily operations of Bitcoinica from Zhou (*4)
  • On 2012/05/11 Bitcoinica was hacked due to a root password reset via a compromised email server (belonging to a member of Bitcoin Consultancy). (*5)

References:
1) http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/3715077
2) http://www.business.govt.nz/fsp/app/ui/fsp/version/searchSummaryCompanyFSP/FSP207625/4.do?noReturn=true
3) https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=81045.msg919130#msg919130 (Tihan's post)
4) http://bitcoinmedia.com/first-licensed-advanced-trading-platform-for-bitcoin/ (written by Donald, CEO of Bitcoin Consultancy)
5) http://bitcoinica.com (post-mortem)

Your analysis is not only wrong but straight up defamation.

Bitcoin Consultancy LTD is a UK Limited company which is neither owned nor owns any other company.
Intersango LTD is a UK Limited company which is neither owned nor owns any other company.
Bitcoinica LP is a New Zealand Limited Partnership.
Core Credit LTD is a New Zealand Limited Company and the General Partner of Bitcoinica LP.
Core Credit LTD was renamed to Bitcoinica Consultancy LTD significantly after the events occurred.

disclaimer: i am not a lawyer

You, my friend, don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about. If I wanted to hand over my account to Al the Alpaca, Mt Gox wouldn't have a single problem with it because...(give me a sec!) And if Al were sold to somebody else and changed his name, still no problem, because...(give me another sec!). And if Al, now Alice, the Alpaca were to go solo--no owner--still no problem because Alice is...(I think I got it!) an icon--a trusted icon.

But if my cousin were to put 100 BTC into Mt Gox and then tried to withdraw at a later date, he's fucked.

Mt Gox, I now feel the poster above has a point and, in the voice of some iconic Cugan, some splainin is warranted.

~Bruno~