Cryptocurrency worth more than £750,000 has been seized from a hacker under a High Court Civil Recovery Order, in what may be the first such recovery of a digital wallet.
Police executed search warrants and seized a black book containing 12 ‘recovery seeds’ which enabled officers to reconstruct a digital wallet, the Crown Prosecution Service announced. The wallet contained a large amount of cryptocurrency. Two further ‘recovery seeds’ were located, leading to police seizing a smaller amount of cryptocurrency from another digital wallet.
The CPS, working with the Tarian Regional Economic Crime Unit in South Wales, secured the civil recovery order against the computer hacker. The cryptocurrency was found to have been obtained prior to and in connection with the original hacking offences. Under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, the CPS applied for a non-conviction-based property freezing order to preserve the assets.
The hacker consented to a civil recovery order being made, forfeiting all the cryptocurrency, with more than £750,000 being paid to public funds.
Adrian Foster, head of the CPS proceeds of crime division said: ‘This criminal thought that he had managed to hide his crypto but, working with law enforcement, we were able to locate, seize and recovery this tainted property so that he could not benefit from his illicit wealth on release from prison.’
2 Readers' comments