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Hacker Refuses to Hand Police Password for Seized Wallet With $6.5M in Bitcoin

Throughout a two-year prison term, the man repeatedly refused to give wallet access to German authorities.

Updated Sep 14, 2021, 12:07 p.m. Published Feb 5, 2021, 1:20 p.m.

German authorities who seized a convicted hacker's wallet containing over 1,700 bitcoin (BTC) – worth at least $64.7 million at today's prices – have hit a brick wall when trying to access the coins.

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According to a German prosecutor cited by Reuters Friday, the convicted criminal is refusing to share the password that would allow the authorities to access the bitcoin.
The hacker was sentenced to an over two-year prison term for installing software on other people’s computers without permission in order to mine cryptocurrency.
He has now served the sentence and has consistently refused hand over the wallet password, despite multiple requests.
“We asked him but he didn’t say,” prosecutor Sebastian Murer told Reuters. “Perhaps he doesn’t know.”
Prosecutors have made sure the man cannot access the bitcoin trove after release, Reuters said without providing any further detail.

Crime Germany CoinFlash

Tanzeel Akhtar

Tanzeel Akhtar has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Forbes Africa, Financial Times, The Street, Citywire, Investing.com, Euromoney, Yahoo! Finance, Benzinga, Kitco News, African Business Magazine, Hedge Week, Campden Family Office, Modern Investor, Spear's Wealth Management Magazine, Global Investor, ETF.com, ETF Stream, CIO UK, Funds Global Asia, Portfolio Institutional, Interactive Investor, Bitcoin Magazine, CryptoNews.com, Bitcoin.com, The Local, The Next Web, Mining Journal, Money Marketing, Marketing Week and more. Tanzeel trained as a foreign correspondent at the University of Helsinki, Finland and newspaper journalist at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. She holds a BA (Honours) in English Literature from the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and completed a semester abroad as an ERASMUS student at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She is NCTJ Qualified - Media Law, Public Administration and passed the Shorthand 100WPM with distinction. She does not currently hold value in any digital currencies or projects.