Chilean crypto exchange Orionx has suspended customer withdrawals and begun a definitive wind-down after a forensic audit found more than $7 million of custodied assets had been transferred to wallets outside the company's control.

Withdrawals are temporarily suspended as the closure and restitution process begins, Orionx said. Chile's Commission for the Financial Market (CMF) said it neither supervises the closure nor has authority to order the return of customer funds, since Orionx is not registered or authorized by the regulator.

Orionx said it filed a report with Chile's Public Prosecutor's Office and a criminal complaint dated Sept. 2 against former executives. La Tercera, citing the complaint, identified them as Orionx partners Roberto Zibert, a former general manager, and Joaquín Díaz, a former technology manager, accused of disloyal administration. These are allegations contained in Orionx's criminal complaint. Cointelegraph reported that Zibert and Díaz denied the allegations and said they never acted against customers' interests.

Orionx's public notice said transactions moving assets to wallets it did not administer exceeded $7 million, but audit figures reported by La Tercera add up to about $6.98 million in accounting differences across Bitcoin, Ether, XRP and Polygon. The complaint separately characterized the resulting loss at approximately $6.07 million.

Bitcoin: about $3.93 million in differences
Ether: about $2.29 million
XRP: $762,017
Polygon: $201

According to La Tercera's account of the complaint, an external audit reconciled Orionx's internal records against data visible on the relevant blockchains, finding outbound transfers omitted from the internal ledger or offset by unsupported accounting adjustments. The complaint alleges the questioned movements occurred between 2018 and 2021, including 79 BTC linked to Orionx custody that moved via a Celsius account maintained by Zibert and an account associated with the comisiones@orionx.com email to an unidentified account. It also alleges an account linked to Díaz received more than $1.5 million in 14 transactions.

The CMF said it rejected Orionx's application for registration and authorization under Chile's Fintech Law on June 19. After that rejection, the company could only conclude existing operations rather than enter new ones, the regulator said, adding that Orionx had not demonstrated it held the guarantees required of authorized providers.

The CMF's guidance to customers is to submit claims directly to Orionx and retain evidence of their balances, including account statements, transaction records and communications with the exchange. Customers may also pursue restitution through Chilean courts or report suspected crimes to judicial authorities.

Orionx's status page describes restitution as a five-stage process currently at the first stage, a public closure notice. The remaining stages include opening a support chat, reconciling all balances, approving a restitution plan and returning funds. The notice says Orionx will seek to return as much of customers' assets as possible but does not guarantee full recovery.

Source: The Defiant

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