Splarnst t1_ivl1lk8 wrote on November 8, 2022 at 7:15 PM

Reply to comment by Pope_Cerebus in TIL: That in 2019, some criminals were caught and 36 BTC was confiscated. The authorities valued the worth at €127,000 at the time and was sold 2 years later for €1.5 million. The criminals were returned €1.3 million due to the fact that the amount was expressed in Swedish Krona, not BTC by Wendals87

But they didn’t lose 127k; they lost 36 BTC.

Pope_Cerebus t1_ivl2bzh wrote on November 8, 2022 at 7:20 PM

Did they? So if BTC had dropped to $10 instead of going up, would you say those people had only lost $360, even though it was 127k when it was stolen?

How about the fact that it's highly unlikely the money was stolen as bitcoin, but was far more likely to have been stolen directly out of normal accounts and converted into bitcoin? So if I steal $10,000 from your bank and use it to buy a car, did I steal your money, or did I steal your car?

derpbynature t1_ivlskya wrote on November 8, 2022 at 10:07 PM

The whole point seems to be that the prosecutors specified the amount stolen in the equivalent in fiat (Krona) at the time, rather than saying 36 BTC, leading to this situation.

So, the criminals had to give back the amount specified in fiat, even though BTC had increased in value in the meantime.

LordCharidarn t1_ivm56wj wrote on November 8, 2022 at 11:35 PM

Not necessarily.

The criminals stole 127k in fiat from the victims. The cops did not seize 127k in currency, but they did find 36 BTC and took that when arresting the criminals.

They then sold the 36 BTC to collect the 127k in fiat. They returned the 127k to the victims. They returned the remaining 1.3 million in fiat to the criminals because they could not prove the rest if the money was criminally obtained.

It would be like if you had to foreclose on your 30 year mortgage after paying into it for 10 years. The bank would sell your house and (assuming the house was sold for around what you bought it for) the bank would take about 2/3rds of the sale price and you would get the other 1/3rd back (without complicated contractual agreements).