German police conducted a major Bitcoin seizure operation in mid-January, confiscating 50,000 Bitcoins worth up to $2.17 billion. This is considered the largest cryptocurrency confiscation in German history.
The confiscation was a result of an investigation into a copyright infringement case related to an illegal piracy website in 2013. The illegal proceeds from the website were later converted into Bitcoin. After an extensive investigation, the police identified two suspects, one of whom chose to cooperate and voluntarily transferred their Bitcoin holdings to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). Although the police successfully carried out the seizure operation, the two individuals involved in the case have not yet faced any formal charges.
In 2021, the US government also seized a similar amount of Bitcoin related to the now-defunct dark web marketplace Silk Road. They confiscated approximately 50,676 Bitcoins, valued at around $3.36 billion at the time (during Bitcoin’s peak at $69,000). This became the second-largest seizure amount in the history of the US Department of Justice.
In the end, on April 15, 2023, the US Department of Justice announced that James Zhong, a Chinese hacker who was arrested in November 2021 for exploiting payment system vulnerabilities on the Silk Road and stealing over 50,000 Bitcoins, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.
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