German police recently conducted a major Bitcoin seizure operation, temporarily confiscating up to 5,000 bitcoins worth a staggering $2.17 billion. This is considered the largest cryptocurrency seizure in German history.
The confiscation was triggered by the operation of a copyright infringement website in 2013. According to the police statement, the illegal profits from the website were later converted into bitcoins. After an in-depth investigation, the police eventually focused on two suspects. Under the continued investigation by the police, one of the suspects chose to cooperate and voluntarily transferred the bitcoins they held to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). Although the police have successfully carried out the confiscation operation, the two men involved in the case have not yet faced any formal charges.
In fact, in 2021, the US government also successfully seized bitcoins related to the now-defunct dark web market Silk Road, totaling approximately 50,676 bitcoins, valued at around $3.36 billion at the time (when bitcoin was at its all-time high of $69,000). This became the second-largest seizure amount in the history of the US Department of Justice.
Ultimately, on April 15, 2023, the US Department of Justice announced that James Zhong, a Chinese hacker who was arrested in November 2021 for stealing over 50,000 bitcoins using a payment system loophole on the dark web black market website “Silk Road,” was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.
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