Two years ago, a German man was arrested, charged and convicted on fraud related offences for which he was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison. What he had done was deceive and conjure people into giving him access to their PC’s while he installed Bitcoin mining software on them which were sent to a virtual wallet to only which he had control.
A total of $60 million was in the virtual wallet. These virtual wallets work on a basis where there is only one password that will unlock it and a virtually impossible to hack.
The German lawyers prosecuting the case experienced this first-hand. The named accused would not give up the password to the funds and attempts to break the securities and encryption down. There is speculation that he may not remember the password to the Bitcoin, which has happened before in the case of a German national living in San Francisco who forgot his password and has two attempts remaining to get it right before the contents of the wallet are wiped.
It is also entirely possible that the accused, who has served his time, intends to keep the funds for himself and wait until the spotlight as gone and will drift into the unknown before he takes the money.
This area of cyber finances is a remarkably unregulated area. A man did go to prison for what he did, but he still could have access to the profits of his crime. Is two years of your life worth a big payday once you are released? Perhaps in the future, a means for authorities to get access to this contraband may become available but for now, they seem to be unable to stop the guilty party from using their illegally obtained money.
It is a rather strange and almost would lead someone to think facetiously when speaking about this topic due to there being some inkling of a comedic element involved. The sphere that is cyber currency creates the opportunity to hide millions in a completely impenetrable place, out of touch from the authorities and potentially, out of your grasp also.
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