An Australian man from Queensland has recently surrendered a significant amount of assets including Bitcoin, a luxurious waterfront mansion, and a Mercedes-Benz car, following claims by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) that these assets may have been obtained through criminal activities. The AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT) disclosed on May 18th that they seized nearly 25 Bitcoin, as well as the mansion and car, with a combined value of 4.5 million Australian dollars ($2.88 million).

The investigation by the AFP commenced in September 2018 after receiving information from law enforcement in Luxembourg regarding suspicious Bitcoin transactions allegedly linked to the Queensland man. The individual had previously been convicted of hacking a US gaming company. The AFP also stated that the man was connected to the theft of 950 Bitcoin from a French cryptocurrency exchange in 2013.

Although no criminal charges were filed in relation to the Bitcoin theft, the AFP obtained a court order in April to forfeit the assets, claiming they could not be traced back to legitimate earnings. The owner of the confiscated assets was identified as Shane Stephen Duffy, who had pleaded guilty to fraud and computer hacking in 2016 for selling personal data of League of Legends players.

Duffy was implicated in a cyberattack on Riot Games in 2011, where hackers obtained data of over 5 million users. He was not directly involved in the hack, but was found to have sold the data for profit. Additionally, Duffy was accused of hacking the account of Riot Games president Marc Merrill to promote his data-selling business. The AFP Commander Jason Kennedy emphasized that the agency has specific powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act to restrain and forfeit assets suspected to be linked to criminal proceeds, including cybercrimes.

The proceeds from the sale of the confiscated assets will be channeled into a special purpose fund aimed at supporting crime prevention and law enforcement efforts. The CACT, since July 2019, has restrained over $1.2 billion in assets including properties, vehicles, yachts, cryptocurrencies, and fine art.

This case serves as a reminder of the AFP's commitment to combating financial crimes and the utilization of its powers to target proceeds of crime. The agency aims to ensure that funds derived from criminal activities do not fuel further criminal acts, and instead are redirected towards benefiting the community through crime prevention initiatives.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/australia-seize-mansion-bitcoin-tied-2013-crypto-exchange-hack?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss%3F&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound