It is not uncommon to hear about the government confiscating Bitcoin from criminals, but a recent case in Australia has revealed that a police officer is allegedly involved in stealing cryptocurrencies seized from a drug trafficking group. The officer, identified as William Wheatley, is accused of stealing 81.616 Bitcoins (approximately $4.3 million) from the confiscated cryptocurrency in a drug and steroid trafficking investigation in January 2019. Wheatley has been indicted in early December 2022 and is currently undergoing a pretrial hearing.
According to Cryptopotato, law enforcement officers discovered a large amount of substances similar to steroids and an email allegedly used for drug transactions (using Bitcoin) during a raid in 2019. They subsequently found a Trezor hardware wallet. About three weeks later, the task force responsible for the raid obtained permission from a judge to access the wallet. However, on February 14, 2022, investigators discovered that 81.616 Bitcoins had been transferred to other wallets on January 29, four days after the device was seized, and the trace was lost.
Initially, investigators suspected that an accomplice of the drug dealer had orchestrated the funds transfer. However, after further investigation and the introduction of new tracking tools in 2021, it was discovered that a police officer may be involved, leading to the reopening of the case.
Subsequently, another officer found a related IP address connected to the Australian Federal Police headquarters in Melbourne at the time, which led to the suspicion that a police officer may have been involved in the cryptocurrency transfer. The Australian Law Enforcement Integrity Commission then hired a cryptocurrency investigator named Craig to trace the funds. He confirmed that between January 29 and April 11, 2019, the wallet had conducted 28 transactions on various cryptocurrency platforms, some of which were found to have been subsequently deposited into the bank account of the implicated officer, Wheatley.
During the trial, another police officer testified that he was the only federal police officer present during the search operation on January 25 and admitted that he was not aware of the nature of the hardware wallet when he found it. He contacted Wheatley for assistance, referring to him as an expert from the cybercrime department.
In related news, it was reported that the US government, which holds over 200,000 Bitcoins, could potentially affect the Bitcoin market with its next move.
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