A report filed by KSV Restructuring Inc., the third person responsible for overseeing the recovered funds, shows that it holds less than $ 2 million of the approximately $ 24 million raised by various campaigns supporting the occupation weeks. streets in downtown Ottawa. This GIF analyzes the $ 24 million raised for the winter of 2022 “Freedom Convoy”, about half through the GiveSendGo website. (CBC)
Most of the money in bail came from Tamara Lich, the escort leader who had access to most of the money through her role in organizing the protest, for which she has since been accused. The crowdfunding efforts he led raised nearly $ 10.1 million from 120,000 donors before the donation was suspended. The site raised the money, GoFundMe, and then returned most of that money to the original donors as of Feb. 5, the company said. “All refunds started through our payment processing partner, including all transaction processing fees and advice, and this money was returned to donors in the following days,” she said in a statement. The nearly $ 1.4 million remaining in Lich’s possession was transferred to bail, and this is the bulk of KSV Restructuring’s more than $ 1.5 million. The money used to fund the protest came from various online fundraisers and included cryptocurrencies. (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press)

It’s not clear where the GiveSendGo funds have gone

It is not clear where most of the money raised through GiveSendGo went. Fundraising launched on the US-based site raised more than $ 12 million. Recent court documents show that $ 4.25 million is being held by a payment company, but the remaining $ 7.75 million is being ignored. (CBC)
During a court appearance March 9, GiveSendGo co-founder and CFO Jacob Wells said donations would be returned to donors. Some donors to GiveSendGo confirmed to CBC that they received a refund, while others said they did not. When asked by the CBC, the company declined to disclose the total amount returned to donors. Two fundraisers on the site were responsible for raising money for the demonstrations: the Freedom Convoy 2022 fundraiser raised nearly $ 12.2 million from nearly 113,000 donations, while a second Adopt a Trucker fundraiser raised $ 739,308.87 from $ 8,375 donations.

The more encryption arrests, the more people still avoid capture

About $ 419,316 in digital currencies were transferred on bail between March 7 and March 22 by three group action respondents. The remaining digital currency raised as part of the escort fundraiser continues to evade the authorities. The main account associated with the protesters raised 20.7 bitcoins (worth almost $ 1.1 million Cdn), but as of March 29, only 7.6 bitcoins (worth $ 419,316 Cdn) had been secured by the guarantor. Ottawa resident and self-proclaimed encryption organizer Nicholas St. Louis gave an envelope containing information about $ 8,000 in bitcoin to a protester during a live stream on February 16th. (YouTube)
Most of the digital currency has been drained from its original source, with a major self-proclaimed encryption organizer posting videos of itself giving direct access information to escort supporters in downtown Ottawa. Following court documents and bitcoin transactions on the internet, CBC News put together a partial but elaborate trading web where large sums of money were scattered across hundreds of virtual wallets. Authorities are believed to be tracking the movements of these wallets, but the identities of those who received them remain largely unknown to the public.

Details of how Lich handled the escort funds

In an affidavit filed in court, Lich said she was involved in creating the crowdfunding campaign for “Freedom Convoy” on the GoFundMe platform. He said he was using a personal TD bank account, which had no balance, as a designated account to hold funds donated to GoFundMe. An email was created to accept donations, which was also entered into her personal account. At the time, he was the only person with access to donations. In late January, an “economic committee” was formed, and protest organizers, including Lich, created a “Code of Conduct for Freedom”, a “Letter to the Captains” and a registration form to take part in the protest.
On January 30, the organizers tried to further formalize “Freedom Convoy” by incorporating a non-profit company, Freedom Corp. Protest organizer Tamara Lich speaks to police a few days before the arrest and indictment. (Patrick Doyle / Reuters)
When GoFundMe released $ 1 million in donations on February 2, it did so on Lich’s personal account set aside for the protest. Lich’s affidavit states that “this was because Freedom Corp. did not have a bank account and the time was essential to start funding those we raised.” Two days after sending her $ 1 million, GoFundMe said it had closed the campaign, citing violations of its rules on violence and harassment, with all other donations being returned directly to individual donors. Lich said that on the same day that it received the GoFundMe money, a “hold” was entered in its Freedom Convoy-related account. He said that the bank did not prevent the deposit of money in the account, but it was not possible to withdraw the funds. While accessing the money provided by GoFundMe, Lich said it had completed about $ 26,000 in transactions. He spent $ 13,000 on bulk fuel purchases and another $ 13,000 “was withdrawn in cash and used for various purposes,” he said.