PRAGUE (Reuters) -The Czech centre-right government on Wednesday survived a vote of no confidence, called after the acceptance of a payment to the state by an ex-convict worth $45 million in bitcoin sparked controversy within the ruling coalition months before an election.
The biggest opposition party, ANO, which leads opinion polls ahead of an October 3-4 election, had filed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s government, accusing it of helping the former cybercriminal legitimise his bitcoin holdings of potentially illegal origin.
The motion failed after two days of debate in the lower house, where Fiala’s ruling coalition led by his Civic Democrats Party, holds a majority.
Political veteran Pavel Blazek, from Fiala’s party, resigned as justice minister on May 31 for accepting the payment on behalf of the state, though he denied doing anything illegal.
Fiala has called accepting the gift a political and ethical mistake.
The man who made the donation of 468 bitcoins to the state was in jail from 2017 until 2021 after being convicted of involvement in the drug trade, fraud and illegal possession of weapons for running an illegal drug market on the internet called Sheep Marketplace.
Blazek has faced criticism for possibly legitimising the ex-convict’s assets, instead of turning to prosecutors or police to help secure them.
The gift, Blazek has said, was agreed to be 30% of bitcoins found in a wallet on computers returned to the ex-convict by courts earlier this year.
It was not clear what was the ex-convict’s motivation to make the donation.
(Reporting by Jason Hovet; editing by Diane Craft)
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