The Bolivian Financial System Supervision Authority (ASFI) has arrested 60 people for engaging in cryptocurrency related activities last week, Bitcoin Magazine reported.
The ASFI stated that cryptocurrencies are banned in the country and compared cryptocurrency related investments to “pyramid schemes”. The mass arrests were made by the Bolivia's Crime Fighting Special Forces (FELCC). It remains unclear what the suspects have been actually charged with.
The agency went on to state that it will track down people engaging in promoting digital currencies through online medium. In an official statement, the ASFI director Lenny Valdivia Bautista said (as translated by Bitcoin Magazine):
"We have confiscated brochures relating to business schemes that go around giving trainings and making business plans in relation to virtual currencies that are operating abroad,” Valdivia Bautista stated. “The Bolivian population should not participate in closed [cryptocurrency] groups through WhatsApp. The only thing they are doing is taking advantage of the population, deceiving the people to appropriate their money.”
He urged people to denounce cryptocurrency related activities in which people intend to take advantage of people and their families’ savings. Valdivia said that in cooperation with competent judicial authorities, they will enforce the law if any part of the national territory is pretending to implement businesses with the use of virtual currencies or pyramid schemes.
Valdivia also asked people to “take care of their savings by reporting [cryptocurrency related] activities” by calling a special hotline or contacting the country’s “Special Forces Against Felony”.
The Central Bank of Bolivia (BCB) prohibits the use of digital currencies which are not issued or regulated in the country. This includes Bitcoin, Namecoin, Peercoin, and others that do not belong to any country or economic zone.
