[2017-12-08] The Bulgarian Government Is Sitting on $3 Billion in Bitcoin

[ivanpoldark]

A crackdown on organized crime by Bulgarian law enforcement in May resulted in the seizure of more than 200,000 bitcoins – an amount worth more than $3 billion at today's prices.

According to a press release dated May 19 from the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC), a regional organization comprised of 12 member states including Bulgaria, a total of 213,519 bitcoins were seized that month. Twenty-three Bulgarian nationals were arrested during the operation, and officials said at the time that the arrests and subsequent asset seizures followed an investigation into an alleged customs fraud scam.

As of press time, the amount seized is worth approximately $3.3 billion, at a price of roughly $15,524, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI).

Authorities commented at the time:

"The offenders choose the bitcoin way of investing/saving the money, because it is rather difficult to be tracked and followed."

They further alleged that those involved developed a virus which was used to hack into Bulgarian Customs computers, allowing the perpetrators to skip paying fees when transporting goods into the country. The virus was uploaded to government machines by bribed agents, according to the release.

In all, the alleged perpetrators avoided paying some 10 million leva (Bulgaria's national currency), worth roughly $6 million.

What remains unclear at this time is what the Bulgarian government is doing with the seized bitcoins.

According to a report from Bivol.bg from Nov. 28, the Bulgarian government declined to release further details, citing an ongoing criminal investigation.

Notable in the May 19 release is a notation that, at the time it was published, a single bitcoin was worth $2,354. The release stated that the total amount seized was worth $500 million – less than one-sixth of its current value today.

https://www.coindesk.com/bulgarian-government-sitting-3-billion-bitcoin/

[iamTom123]

This story is telling us that although it can be difficult to track and crack personalities involved in criminal acts, it is not really impossible doing it otherwise they never had those seizures resulting into netting 200,000 Bitcoin now worth around $3 Billion. The cases should be fast-tracked for resolutions so that those Bitcoins can be returned into the open market and the government can use the revenues for various programs that can further help law enforcement especially in cybercrimes and illegal financial schemes. 

To be fair to Bitcoin, I would assume that the majority of the money involved in crimes is in the fiat money and that those figures eclipsed that in Bitcoin (of course there is nothing new with the use of the fiat money so they are not in the news). What is new and novel will always land in the mainstream media because those are the news that can easily get the attention of the viewers.

[1Referee]

What remains unclear at this time is what the Bulgarian government is doing with the seized bitcoins.

According to a report from Bivol.bg from Nov. 28, the Bulgarian government declined to release further details, citing an ongoing criminal investigation.

Of course they don't know what they will do with these coins. Instead of publicly auctioning these coins, they will likely share a fair portion of these coins amongst their fellow government figures to reward themselves for their efforts. Another possibility is that they have taken 'their' cut already, and now look to further utilize this opportunity in their advantage. Other than that, there is not much interesting going on apart from the massive amount that's concerned with this raid. These things will keep happening, and in this case we can't blame the tool for the malicious actions of people. At this point it's the government (criminals) stealing from other criminals. It's basically a never ending cycle.

[Kemarit]

For me auctioning will be a good recourse of action. The seized bitcoin can go back to circulations again. And its a perfect opportunity to get it at cheap price, for those Bulgarians who are into bitcoin already. Or maybe the government just keep it and dump it as they want and used the money generated to funds more local projects. And rest assured that they will keep monitoring bitcoin and criminals. It looks like they are as corrupt as other nations as well. Somewhat inside has connived with the agents to install the virus. They should follow up as well and arrest those agents.

Authorities commented at the time:

"The offenders choose the bitcoin way of investing/saving the money, because it is rather difficult to be tracked and followed."

Its difficult but possible to tracked them using blockchain. Those criminals should have known better.