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Authorities in Germany have seized a digital wallet that allegedly contains $ 60 million in bitcoins obtained by fraudulent online activity. The original owner of the wallet was convicted of installing bitcoin mining malware on people’s computers without permission and served more than two years in prison. But the wallet is encrypted, and the fraudster has vehemently refused to reveal the password that protected the 1,700 bitcoins.
“We asked him, but he didn’t say,” the Kempten district attorney in Baravarian told Reuters on Friday. “Maybe he doesn’t know.”
Bitcoin’s value soared during the two years that the fraudster was behind bars.
The German news agency BR says that if the authorities gain access, bitcoins will be sold and the money will go to the state treasury. That’s because bitcoins apparently weren’t stolen from anyone in particular. Instead, they were recently exploited with hacked computing power.
According to BR, employees gained access to 86 bitcoins that were not password protected, earning € 500,000 ($ 600,000). Presumably, this happened at a time when bitcoins were not as valuable as they are now.
Although the government is unable to access the remaining 1,700 bitcoins, officials say the original owner cannot access them either.