Chile’s financial regulator says it does not oversee the exchange’s closure or have the power to order customer repayments.
Chilean crypto exchange Orionx has suspended customer withdrawals and begun a definitive wind-down after saying a forensic audit found more than $7 million of custodied assets had been transferred to wallets outside the company’s control.
Customers cannot currently withdraw because Orionx says withdrawals are temporarily suspended as its closure and restitution process begins. Chile’s Commission for the Financial Market, or CMF, said it neither supervises the closure nor has authority to order the return of customer funds because 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, and said Orionx accused them of disloyal administration. These are allegations in Orionx’s criminal complaint. Cointelegraph reported that Zibert and Díaz denied the allegations and said they never acted against customers’ interests.
Audit Figure Differs From Public $7 Million Claim
Orionx’s public notice said transactions moving assets to wallets it did not administer exceeded $7 million, but the audit figures described in the complaint and 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.
According to La Tercera’s account of the complaint, the external audit reconciled Orionx’s internal records against data visible on the relevant blockchains. It allegedly found differences of about $3.93 million in Bitcoin, $2.29 million in Ether, $762,017 in XRP and $201 in Polygon, with outbound transfers omitted from the internal ledger or offset by unsupported accounting adjustments.
The complaint alleges the questioned movements occurred between 2018 and 2021. It says 79 BTC linked to Orionx custody 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 that an account linked to Díaz received more than $1.5 million in 14 transactions.
CMF Directs Customers to Orionx and Notes Court Options
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. The CMF also said Orionx had not demonstrated that it held the guarantees required of authorized providers.
For customers, the regulator’s guidance 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 that is still at the first stage, a public closure notice. The remaining stages include opening 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; it does not guarantee full recovery.
