U.S. authorities in Ohio sold about 500 bitcoins that were seized in 2018 for around $ 19.2 million. The money was collected for forged identity documents.
Not only private and institutional investors, but also authorities can benefit from the rise in Bitcoin’s price. This is demonstrated by a current example from the USA. A federal agency in the US state of Ohio sold a total of around 500 Bitcoin, which was seized in a fraud case in 2018. The confiscated Bitcoin brought Media reports according to just under 19.23 million US dollars. However, the agency did not disclose how and where it sold the bitcoin. The price development of the crypto currency should have been very accommodating to the authority: At the time of the seizure, the equivalent of 500 BTC was only around 2.88 million US dollars.
The fortune was confiscated from the then 37-year-old Mark Alex Simon from the Toledo region in northwest Ohio. Simon prepared false identification documents for residents of Ohio, Michigan, and Utah. The documents included driver’s licenses and ID cards, which he prepared for payment in Bitcoin. Simon pleaded guilty to the money laundering conspiracy and the transfer of false identification documents in June 2019. He received a two-year prison sentence – and had to cede the captured Bitcoin to the state.
Authorities in Ohio discovered Simon after fake IDs emerged in 2015. After months of investigation, the police finally managed to put Simon and his accomplices down. In such cases, the proceeds from the sale will be shared between federal agencies and the local police forces involved in the investigation. These in turn use it to compensate the victims. Any remaining money will be returned to the US Treasury Department. A fraudster recently hit the net by German investigators, who even confiscated the equivalent of USD 70 million. However, the perpetrator has not yet disclosed the password.