DOJ seizes $15 billion in bitcoin from ‘pig butchering’ scam based in Cambodia
I thought that was one of the features of cryptocurrency, it was immune from seizure by law enforcement.
How did DOJ get access to the bitcoin wallet? I haven’t read any other coverage of this story, can someone fill me in on how this forfeiture was executed?
All the news stories I found said it was “unknown” how they seized the funds. At least one said the wallet was unhosted, so they couldn’t just have compelled some company into handing over the key.
Maybe armed thugs..?
We’ve had several conversations on this:
And this thread as well, though the ability to trace/track the funds starts around #50
I assume they extort…uh, plea bargain with the holders of the wallets.
My guess is they confiscated a computer with the wallet on it.
Isn’t there an encryted password to open the wallet?
There doesn’t have to be (I don’t think so).
If I had a billion dollars in bitcoin, there would be. And I don’t know shit about bitcoin.
Strictly IMHO, but just because bitcoin is (relatively) new and “high tech”, the various criminals who are using it don’t have to be especially smart or secure about how they handle it. Someone, somewhere, has to be able to access the money and especially if they’re moving it around and/or using it to pay for actual IRL goods, it’s likely to be more than one. So … yeah, probably more easy than you’d think to find someone to squeal, or, as said in the other threads, it’s comparatively easy to trace back once you do try to convert to a flesh world product or currency.
I’m curious about the jurisdictional issues too. Did they get Cambodia to extradite? Did we send in a black ops team? I wouldn’t put it past the current admin to hire out the job “by any means necessary” to some private outfit in exchange for a cut of the proceeds, either…