Local authorities today arrested Ildar Ilham, the founder of WhiteRock, in the United Arab Emirates, on suspicion of involvement in the ZKasino case. He is expected to be extradited to the Netherlands, where other leaders of ZKasino are being prosecuted.
The value of the WHITE coin has dropped by more than 30% following the news of the arrest. The community is calling on trading platforms like MEXC and Gate.io to delist the token.
The fall of ZKasino continues after a year
ZKasino, a notorious fraudulent scheme, has caused millions of dollars in losses to its users and a series of subsequent investigations. Last month, cryptocurrency researcher ZachXBT made serious allegations regarding WhiteRock (WHITE), claiming that blockchain data links it to ZKasino.
It seems that these allegations carried weight today, as local authorities arrested the founder of WhiteRock, Ildar Ilham, in the United Arab Emirates.
Emirati authorities notified the Netherlands of the arrest of a suspect in an ongoing criminal investigation. The man was wanted internationally for his involvement in a large-scale fraud related to the alleged gambling platform ZKasino, according to local authorities in a press statement.
The United Arab Emirates will also extradite Ilham to the Netherlands to face fraud charges. The state is already prosecuting key members of ZKasino, so it makes sense to transfer the founder of WhiteRock to that jurisdiction.
So far, authorities have not revealed any new criminal evidence, but the suspicious connections between these companies on the network have been clearly revealing. And now, after the explicit links between WhiteRock and ZKasino have been uncovered, the cryptocurrency community is doubling its efforts to delist White from cryptocurrency listings.
Several prominent exchanges, such as MEXC and Gate.io, have faced severe criticism for listing the currency in the first place. None of these exchanges have issued any announcements so far; however, the price of WHITE has dropped by more than 30%.
Ultimately, the ambiguity of this entire situation between ZKasino and WhiteRock has led to confusion and speculation. It is unclear what prompted the United Arab Emirates to arrest Ilham, and there are no new external sources linking him directly to the manipulation scheme.
We hope that the upcoming criminal proceedings in the Netherlands will fully clarify these links.