Bitcoin Forum

If the money to purchase bitcoins was acquired  in an illegal manner can authorities  lay claims to the money.

Of course. Though it depends, if you bought the bitcoin peer-to-peer with cash then it would be extremely difficult for people to know if your money was acquired in an illegal manner, they might not even care if ever they know. If you used services like Coinbase though, and the government finds out about illegal activity, then they're going to seize your funds.

In theory, yes. But there is no way government can know how you got the money if you buy crypto using localbitcoins for example. On the other hand, if you buy crypto using regulated routes like exchanges, then yes...it is a possibility.

If the money to buy bitcoin is acquired illegally, then the authorities may claim that amount. I do not think so. Will you be compensated for that money? Who will be the deal manager and know that the trade is illegal. Bitcoin trade you also have to take risks. So choose the place to trust to trade.

This.

If OP keeps asking these questions openly, then it's not that difficult for authorities to find out what's going on, or to at least start an investigation.

Common sense would be enough to find out the answer, but not everyone knows how to properly utilize common sense it seems. ::)

Yes. I don't know the nitty gritty of it, but there has been a very publicized past incident that proves they could be seized: Silk Road (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/02/alleged-silk-road-website-founder-arrested-bitcoin).

If you're not convinced that it can happen on a small scale given the massive gravity of the Silk Road mess, here's another example (https://www.dailydot.com/business/11-bitcoins-seized-government-dea/) of a man who tried to buy drugs with Bitcoin. That was apparently enough to get his coins seized. I imagine the situation would still be the same even if the situations were reversed and he received Bitcoins for selling drugs instead. I could probably pull out more examples, but you get the idea.

Yes authorities can lay claims against the money. If the authorities can proof that you use illegal money to purchase bitcoins. In South Africa they will confiscate your Bitcoin.

Yes it can, but not as easy as we think, because in bitcoin currency only the holder can use bitcoin because those who have the key to open their account.

If Bitcoin is regulated in a certain country and If the government will found out that the Bitcoin is came from illegal source then of course they can hold and seize the account but the problem is it will be difficult for the government to determine if Bitcoin is illegal so therefore they will just mostly rely on Bitcoin to fiat conversion in the local exchange then they will start monitoring and investigating on how a person posses such a huge money from Bitcoin.