What does the police do if they seize bitcoin from criminals? - page 2.

20kevin20

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Quote from: Debonaire217 on July 14, 2020, 10:26:10 PM

It is quite easier for police whos intention is to sell the bitcoin for his own good using mixers. The traces and signs that these bitcoins are used in illegal activites will be forever forgotten.

The traces will still be there out in the dust, waiting for a proper blockchain analysis to find them out. You cannot hide the tracks of coins on BTC's blockchain, it's immutable and the records will be forever known unlike you said.

Quote from: Rengga Jati on July 14, 2020, 01:18:23 PM

And if it is indeed possible, of course, they can get the private key easily from the perpetrator. After that, it will depend on the court there whether the asset will be sold and entered the state treasury or will be auctioned (somehow the meaning).

I don't think they can easily get the private keys from a criminal. It's usually either the criminals giving up their private keys for their sentence to be mild or their privkey storage was crappy. Otherwise, besides basically torturing the criminal to make him unwillingly tell where the keys are, the authorities may have no luck in finding them - or the criminal could simply say "I lost my keys".

Quote from: Rengga Jati on July 14, 2020, 01:18:23 PM

Have just read about it and yeah it makes sense if the BTC is used for the criminals. The government really can seize it with their authorities. In this case, all the evidence can be used and seized if necessary. Moreover, if there are exact rule and regulation about it clearly.

Yeah, let's leave BTC anti-crime regulations for later (or never) - they've abused them enough.

Debonaire217

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It is quite easier for police whos intention is to sell the bitcoin for his own good using mixers. The traces and signs that these bitcoins are used in illegal activites will be forever forgotten. So without proper measures on how policemen and government should handle these cases, I am not convinced that it will be in the hands of the government for improvement.

Remember, some other illegal items are being burnt to avoid it being used, but not all of it was completely taken care of, some are still kept by corrupts. What more if it is bitcoin that could be mixed.

yazher

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It depends on which government they belonged because for some reason there are lots of rules out there in each country. some might keep it as government properties when they are proven to be used for criminal activities. some might just hold it and we never know what they may do to it later. then you have some corrupt policemen in every country if the operation didn't publish to their people, there are chances that they will hide it to sold later on.

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Quote from: Utoy101 on July 14, 2020, 06:29:30 PM

It depends on the particular government and their laid down rules about seizures of criminals property but certainly, the bitcoin wallet will be sieze because it is a stolen asset attributed to the criminal. Like said by other members, countries like US, UK And some countries often do auction sales of seized properties time to time

If the country has much corrupt police, they will not give the bitcoin to the government, but they will send the bitcoin to their private wallet. But they can not hide the transaction because the transaction will appear in the network, and although the other police don't know who is the owner of the wallet, they can still track from where the connection made.

Utoy101

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It depends on the particular government and their laid down rules about seizures of criminals property but certainly, the bitcoin wallet will be sieze because it is a stolen asset attributed to the criminal. Like said by other members, countries like US, UK And some countries often do auction sales of seized properties time to time

Oilacris

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Quote from: BlackHatCoiner on July 13, 2020, 09:37:49 AM

Many criminals choose to use bitcoin for a billion reasons. I don't blame them. In fiat money, if police finds out that a drug dealer sells drugs, they arrest him and then his millions go to government.

If he had (let's say) 1000BTC what would police do? There is no law that says "Police can then take his private keys and move his coins to a government's address". If the police cannot do something with the money then they will leave them to his address. Will these coins get lost? I don't think so. When criminal gets fired from the jail (if he went) he will still have his fortune, right?

In 2013, silk road's owner had saved in bitcoin 400,000$ (by that time's price!!!).

If a criminal havent disclosed out his keys then theres nothing they can do and they cant seize that out as long they dont have the keys then theres no way that they can get those coins.

But if they do then i have seen some sort of auction but most of the time if coins came from illegal then im sure that they do keep it up. We dont know on whats their plan ahead

but to know those funds are in their hands then they do have the full control of it.

pixie85

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The official thing is to auction it off but you can never be sure what happens along the way just the way they do it when they seize cash.

If they get 1000 BTC nobody will know for sure if they seized 1010 and the 10 got "lost" somewgere. I don't trust people with money because greed usually takes over and they steal. Policemen are normal people hinding behind a badge and uniform.

Harlot

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I've read this article before that's why I know seized crypto assets are being auctioned off by the US government.

Quote from: https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2020/02/10/bitcoin-us-government-billion-auction-criminal-seized-sales-btc-cryptocurrency/

The US government lost $1.7 billion by selling Bitcoin too early

The United States is likely to have missed out on around $1.7 billion by auctioning off seized Bitcoin $BTC way too soon.

Using back-dated market rates, cryptocurrency enthusiast Jameson Lopp built a handy portal to estimate the amount of money those sales have generated since 2014.

The article also mentioned that United Kingdom also does auctions when it comes to seized crypto but for other countries this might be held differently but from what I know non-cash items except for drugs and other illegal things are mostly held for sale in order for the money to return back to the government.

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The first to do is investigating and searching for evidence that the person was involved in a crime or using BTC for a crime.
After being proven and convicted by the court, then the asset could be confiscated or seized if indeed the asset has something to do with the crime he committed. However, here I do not know whether the police confiscated it or other parties. I think there are other authorities from the court in charge of confiscating. And if it is indeed possible, of course, they can get the private key easily from the perpetrator. After that, it will depend on the court there whether the asset will be sold and entered the state treasury or will be auctioned (somehow the meaning).

Quote from: seoincorporation on July 13, 2020, 10:14:01 AM

Quote

The U.S. Justice Department has claimed the proceeds from the sale of 144,336 bitcoins, valued at just over $48 million, that it obtained after shutting down the notorious online drug market Silk Road in 2013.

Those $48 millions are now capital of the government.

Have just read about it and yeah it makes sense if the BTC is used for the criminals. The government really can seize it with their authorities. In this case, all the evidence can be used and seized if necessary. Moreover, if there are exact rule and regulation about it clearly.

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If they have the private keys seized, then it's no longer the former owner's private keys, assuming he/she is guilty. They own the addresses too or could move the fund to special address, why not?

In regards to the criminal part, I don't see why criminals wouldn't choose fiat currencies especially physical fiats. In my opinion, criminals would even prefer the physical ones to trade within their countries because it's more anonymous to do so.

thesmallgod

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It depend on the country because each have rules and regulations regarding seized goods and assets including money. In UK, the seized assets are reinvest back to policing and some other parts are used for other community projects. You can read about that here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32827790 and also https://www.coindesk.com/police-force-confiscates-295-bitcoins-from-criminal-in-uk-first

traderethereum

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If that police know about bitcoin, they will ask that person what his private keys are, so the police can access his wallet and move the money to their wallet.
If the police can not access the wallet, they can not move the coins, and it will still remain at that wallet.
Maybe that police will ask for help from the other professional to investigate that person about his crime, so they can know where the illegal money is.
But I believe the police will search for more about bitcoin because that will help them investigate the case, and they can arrest that person because of the illegal thing that he did.

teosanru

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Quote from: BlackHatCoiner on July 13, 2020, 09:37:49 AM

Many criminals choose to use bitcoin for a billion reasons. I don't blame them. In fiat money, if police finds out that a drug dealer sells drugs, they arrest him and then his millions go to government.

If he had (let's say) 1000BTC what would police do? There is no law that says "Police can then take his private keys and move his coins to a government's address". If the police cannot do something with the money then they will leave them to his address. Will these coins get lost? I don't think so. When criminal gets fired from the jail (if he went) he will still have his fortune, right?

In 2013, silk road's owner had saved in bitcoin 400,000$ (by that time's price!!!).

There might not be any law which explicitly says police can take your private keys but I am sure that confiscating all your personal belongings which are valuable is an authority that police has so it might not be that difficult for them to seize anyone's private key legally. But coming to the second question I doubt any government has a cold storage in cryptocurrencies where they make all their cryptocurrencies collection. But I think that they might be auctioned for sure. Or if not auctioned would be sold at a fair market value to someone. But yes I am curious what these small third world nations do because I doubt their police would even be knowing about cryptocurrencies and such stuff.

Heart18

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This is quite an interesting topic. Well, I haven't heard anything about this, since bitcoin is decentralized so I really don't have an idea. But, somehow I think, they need a concrete evidence depending on their investigations and a careful tracing about the bitcoin assets...and when this happens to some countries who accepted it legally, maybe the Government will authorized the designated personnel to do the best thing that they could, just to recover all those Bitcoin from Criminals.

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Quote from: BlackHatCoiner on July 13, 2020, 09:37:49 AM

Many criminals choose to use bitcoin for a billion reasons. I don't blame them. In fiat money, if police finds out that a drug dealer sells drugs, they arrest him and then his millions go to government.

If he had (let's say) 1000BTC what would police do? There is no law that says "Police can then take his private keys and move his coins to a government's address". If the police cannot do something with the money then they will leave them to his address. Will these coins get lost? I don't think so. When criminal gets fired from the jail (if he went) he will still have his fortune, right?

In 2013, silk road's owner had saved in bitcoin 400,000$ (by that time's price!!!).

depend on what is the attitude and the task of the police in your place.

If there is a corrupt officials?for sure they will seize your cryptocurrency and will use it for their own purpose.

Because the world has different rules and different officials.

But if i am the police?and this person is really proven to be criminals?surely i will force Him to give the private key and i will use the money to help the community specially this season of Virus.

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Quote from: BlackHatCoiner on July 13, 2020, 09:37:49 AM

There is no law that says "Police can then take his private keys and move his coins to a government's address".

There might not be a specific law dealing with cryptocurrency and seizing someone's private keys, but you can bet that it falls under the same law that allows police to seize any other asset they're allowed to.

As to what the cops do with any crypto they've commandeered, I don't really know--but I'd imagine if the amount was large enough (as in the Silk Road bust) they'd auction it off and keep the proceeds. But who knows what they do with seized assets. I don't trust cops as far as I can throw them, so I wouldn't put it past them to just keep it for themselves. There's a lot of corruption in both law enforcement and government in general in case you hadn't heard.

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Quote from: BlackHatCoiner on July 13, 2020, 09:37:49 AM

Many criminals choose to use bitcoin for a billion reasons. I don't blame them. In fiat money, if police finds out that a drug dealer sells drugs, they arrest him and then his millions go to government.

If he had (let's say) 1000BTC what would police do? There is no law that says "Police can then take his private keys and move his coins to a government's address". If the police cannot do something with the money then they will leave them to his address. Will these coins get lost? I don't think so. When criminal gets fired from the jail (if he went) he will still have his fortune, right?

In 2013, silk road's owner had saved in bitcoin 400,000$ (by that time's price!!!).

I think the Police have the right to ask the private key from the criminal if they prove that they have transaction and using that bitcoin in illegal activities because Police will do a lot of investigation and confiscate all the necessary things taken by the criminal . If the criminal die and nobody knows the private key of that person,his bitcoin will be floating in the air and nobody can recover it.

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Quote from: BlackHatCoiner on July 13, 2020, 09:37:49 AM

Many criminals choose to use bitcoin for a billion reasons. I don't blame them. In fiat money, if police finds out that a drug dealer sells drugs, they arrest him and then his millions go to government.

If he had (let's say) 1000BTC what would police do? There is no law that says "Police can then take his private keys and move his coins to a government's address". If the police cannot do something with the money then they will leave them to his address. Will these coins get lost? I don't think so. When criminal gets fired from the jail (if he went) he will still have his fortune, right?

In 2013, silk road's owner had saved in bitcoin 400,000$ (by that time's price!!!).

Possibility of seizing bitcoins from criminals is really low because it is impossible to find private keys unless the caught criminal let the police know about this.They can sell the btc to convert it as money and the same procedure will be followed if fiat money got seized by police.

The cure

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I think policeman has the right to seize all bitcoin from criminals specially if they are caught in the act and that bitcoin may have come from their evil deeds. It may have come from their fraud or they may have stolen the money and converted it into bitcoin so that they will not be suspected, and then to return it to their victims as well.

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the police cannot do many things to prevent criminals from using bitcoin, such as robbers who use cars or killers who use guns. the police cannot prohibit the use of cars and pistols or close the factory

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