The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a court order to payment network provider Dwolla to cease providing services to the company that sits between it and Bitcoin exchange Mt Gox.

Dwolla sent emails to customers that have recently made transactions between it and Mt Gox, informing them that it was "unable to move money to and from Mutum Sigillum LLC's Dwolla account" due to orders it had received from DHS and the US District Court of Maryland. OkCupid co-founder Chris Coyne posted a photo of the email to Twitter this morning, and several forum users at BitcoinTalk.org have confirmed its legitimacy.

Just got this email from Dwolla. Homeland Security just demanded the shutdown of Mt. Gox's Dwolla account. #bitcoin twitter.com/malgorithms/st… — Chris Coyne (@malgorithms) May 14, 2013

Mutum Sigillum is the organisation that Mt Gox uses to handle its Dwolla transactions. According to the domain registrar details, both Mt Gox and Mutum Sigillum are controlled by the same company: Tibanne Co.

The suspension of services between Dwolla and Mt Gox has the effect of preventing any traders from using Dwolla to transfer bitcoins or make payments to and from Mt Gox.

Dwolla stated in its email that as it is not a party to the matter, it does not have any information or further insight into the situation. It encouraged affected customers to contact Mutum Sigillum directly, and reiterated its policy of requiring a court order before acting on requests to seize funds or revoke access to accounts.