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Officials in Germany seized a digital wallet that allegedly contained $ 60 million in bitcoins obtained through fraudulent online activity. The original owner of the wallet was convicted of installing malware for bitcoin mining on people’s computers and has served more than two years in prison. But the wallet was encrypted, and the fraudster steadfastly refused to disclose the password protecting the 1,700 bitcoins.
“We asked him, but he did not say,” the prosecutor of the Baravarian city of Kempten told Reuters on Friday. “Maybe he does not know.”
The value of bitcoin has risen the cheater behind bars over the two years.
The German news organization BR says that if the authorities gained access, the bitcoins would be sold and the cash would go into the state coffers. This is because the bitcoins were apparently stolen from no one in particular. They were rather freshly mined with hacked computing power.
According to BR, officials were able to access 86 bitcoins that were not password protected, yielding € 500,000 ($ 600,000). Presumably this happened at a time when bitcoins were not as valuable as they are now.
Although the government does not have access to the remaining 1,700 bitcoins, officials say the original owner does not have access to it either.