About 500 bitcoins (BTC) confiscated in 2019 were sold by the federal court of Toledo, Ohio, in the United States. The BTCs were sold for more than 19 million dollars, according to the local media Toledo Blade.
The exact date on which the BTCs were sold is unknown. The figure of more than 19.2 million dollars represents more than 6 times the value in fiat money at the time of confiscation , which did not reach 3 million, according to the attorney Bridget Brennan, cited by the referred medium.
By averaging the total sale price and the amount of BTC, we see that would have been sold at an average price of over $ 38,000 . The report adds that it would be the largest net seizure in the history of the Northern District of Ohio.
In May 2019, Mark Alex Simon was found guilty of the broadcast and sending false documentation to his clients, in addition to conspiracy to launder money, as can be seen in the report of the Department of Justice (DoJ).
Finally, Simon was sentenced to 24 months of incarceration in a federal prison. The charges against him included the production and sale of false driver’s licenses and identification cards between the years 2013 and 2018.
For his business, Simon had a website through which applicants for his services paid in bitcoin, reported the US media.
Along with the detainee, three other people were charged at the time. Those three people are mentioned in the DoJ statement, although the BTC apparently belonged solely to Simon, according to the sale report. As CriptoNoticias reported at the time, those involved had a history of previous offenses.
Auction of bitcoins from crimes in the United States
It is a common practice to auction BTC seized in different investigations into criminal actions. In this medium, we have reviewed auctions that in some cases reach thousands of bitcoins confiscated in the United States. The most notorious case among these was that of BTC confiscated by the case of Silk Road, one of the markets of the dark web pioneers in the use of bitcoin.
Outside US borders, other governments have appealed for the same practice, such as it has happened in Australia or France. Other countries, such as Finland, have preferred to keep the funds in BTC.
In the United States, there are those who think that this should be the procedure of the authorities before the seizure of BTC, and have even proposed legislation so that the country conserves bitcoins.
