Victorian Government Wants to 'Make the Most of' 24,500 BTC Confiscated From Online Drug Dealer
Local Government authorities in Victoria, Australia announced today they are looking to sell US$7.1m worth of bitcoins on the open market in the coming months. The 24,500 BTC were confiscated from a Melbourne drug dealer named Richard Pollard, who was sentenced in October 2014, to 11 years' jail after pleading guilty to commercial trafficking. The bitcoins were seized by the state's Asset Confiscation Operations (ACO) in late-2013 but the agency had to wait until the man's case had been heard in the court system. An ACO spokesperson confirmed it has taken possessions of the 24,500 BTC and....
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The government of Sweden has found itself in the unusual situation of paying out around $1.5 million worth of Bitcoin to a drug dealer, whom they convicted and then jailed. Authorities are being forced to pay the man 33 BTC, after his illegally obtained bitcoin appreciated while behind bars. A Swedish Prosecutor’s Mistake Two years ago, a Swedish court convicted the man for selling drugs online and illegally earning 36 BTC from those sales. However, his prosecutor at the time, Tove Kullberg, used the fiat value of the coin to make her initial case. And as a result, the court judged....
The Swedish prosecutor had argued in court that the man should be stripped of his illicitly earned Bitcoin at the equivalent value in fiat currency at the time of his conviction. The Swedish government has found itself in the unforeseen situation of paying out around $1.5 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to a convicted — and then jailed — drug dealer.Two years ago, the man was convicted in a Swedish court for having illegally earned 36 Bitcoin through online drug sales. Yet, Tove Kullberg, his prosecutor at the time, had used the Bitcoin’s equivalent value in fiat to make her case. The....
Australian authorities last year seized about 24,500 Bitcoins from a Melbourne Silk Road drug dealer. Richard Pollard ran a web shop on the Silk Road website. He was accused of selling various illicit drugs between August and December, 2012. Last Friday, Richard Pollard was sentenced in the County Court of Melbourne to 11 years. Police were monitoring Pollard's every last move in late 2012; when they executed a search warrant on two properties they found a variety of drugs and computer equipment along with about $58,000 in cash. But some months later, authorities found three Bitcoin....
Convicted dark web vendor Chrissano Leslie, 26, was sentenced last Tuesday and will likely be deported after his release. His defense framed him not as a big drug trafficker, but a street-level dealer who just so happened to sell heroin, fentanyl and other drugs thanks to the dark web. Prosecutors portrayed Leslie as standing on a high tech street corner on a sophisticated online marketplace they called “an anonymous eBay” for criminals. Senior U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley said he was concerned with a recent spike in heroin and fentanyl abuse. “People are overdosing and dying,”....
Law enforcement agencies in Ukraine crack down on an online drug marketplace, confiscated the stock of illegal drugs and contraband. The Ukrainian Police has closed down an online marketplace for trading illegal narcotics online. According to the local media reports, the anonymous darknet market was active on internet for a very long time. They were even advertising their products offline throughout the Ukraine – Kiev, Zaporizhia, Dnepr, Krivoy Rog, Kharkov, Nikolayev and other surrounding regions – via illegal street posters. The operators had set up a robust channel of communication....