The Canadian government on Monday seized more than one million dollars in bitcoin that were donated via a website to last month’s trucker “Freedom Convoys” that gridlocked cities and border crossings, Vice News reports.
After Canadian authorities declared a national emergency caused by the convoys, held in protest of vaccine mandates for truckers in the United States, the organizers of the convoys were barred from using fundraising platforms to get money. However, some tried to raise funds on Bitcoin fundraising platform HonkHonkHodl, thinking they could outmaneuver law enforcement.
“Getting your money turned off is insanely harmful. One trucker I met ran a business and didn’t know when he was going to be able to pay his 10 drivers next,” a HonkHonkHodl lead organizer who goes by the pseudonym “NobodyCaribou” told Motherboard without realizing the business owner should be able to run his business remotely or he should stop griping and return to run his business. “Incredibly messed up.”
One of the organizers gave truckers a card and flier with instructions on how to access $8,000 in cryptocurrency. Some were able to complete the task and get the money before authorities froze the accounts.