ok, so it turned out to not be necessary.

in the response to my angry support ticket I received instructions on closing the account and getting my remaining BTC back without the need to verify my identity.

i now understand their policy is that all of their ACCOUNT HOLDERS will be AML/KYC verified.. in order to have an active account, which is fine. their policy is their business.

and if you dont want to verify your identity you must deactivate your account.. so holding the btc "ransom" is really just a way to force people like me, who do not want to share their identity, to close their accounts.. which i can see now is a pretty effective way to have account holders become motivated to sort themselves out

so i get my .3btc .. which I fully expect to be worth about $3000 some time next year.



Here is their last response:

Dear Spotted,

Thank you for sending us your email confirmation. We instructed our system administrator to close your account an repatriate your funds to the provided Bitcoin address.

If you should need any further assistance we remain available at support@bitstamp.net.

Best regards,
Marko Rogan