How bitcoins get confiscated?

[harrymmmm]

When the feds confiscated Ross Ulbricht's coins, what they actually got were the coins held by users of the site. His personal coins were protected with far better security and despite their best attempts, they are still inaccessible to this day:

When Ross Ulbricht, known as Dread Pirate Roberts to users of the site, was arrested last week, the FBI seized 26,000 Bitcoins belonging to Silk Road customers. But it also attempted, unsuccessfully, to claim the nearly 600,000 - thought to be worth around $80m - which Ulbricht himself is thought to be holding...

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/07/fbi-bitcoin-silk-road-ross-ulbricht

The number of bitcoins seized from Ross' computer is definitely more than 26,000. It was 144,000 coins. The silkroad coins were sold immediately, while Ross' personal coins were sold at a later stage. The sale of silkroad coins was immediate, while the sale of Ross' coins hinged on the government being able to produce enough evidence to convict him.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/2015/02/18/following-silk-road-trial-u-s-marshals-to-auction-off-nearly-12-million-of-ulbrichts-bitcoin/

The government and Ulbricht agreed to the sale of these Bitcoins on January 27, 2015, during Ulbricht’s trial in New York City. One week later, Ulbricht was found guilty of seven drug trafficking and money laundering charges after only 3.5 hours of jury deliberation.  Had Ulbricht been found not guilty, the money earned by the government in the auction would have been returned to him in cash. Instead, the money will go to the Department of Justice’s asset forfeiture fund, according USMS spokesperson Lynzey Donahue.

The silk road coins were sold in June, 2014. ok.
But the first of ross's coins were auctioned in Dec, 2014. Before the trial.
As I recall, there was a statement somewhere that said he agreed to this at the beginning of 2014. It also said the proceeds were to be held in escrow, etc.

[IDKwhatimdoing]

Easy: the owner of the coins is tortured for the password Or yes, the security is very low in some cases...

[ed_teech]

They simply can't confiscate anything unless they are given the private keys. Theoretically impossible.

That's what some people commenting here fail to understand. None of the confiscated Bitcoins were taken by force, i.e. cracked. I doubt they (the authorities) would even try to break into your wallet. They would rather pressure you into giving it up, just as they did with DPR.

That is different. Imagine a criminal who stole some BTC from you. If he/she gets killed during the arrest, the government can't possibly give your BTC back.

[Wary]

They simply can't confiscate anything unless they are given the private keys. Theoretically impossible.

That's what some people commenting here fail to understand. None of the confiscated Bitcoins were taken by force, i.e. cracked. I doubt they (the authorities) would even try to break into your wallet. They would rather pressure you into giving it up, just as they did with DPR.

That is different. Imagine a criminal who stole some BTC from you. If he/she gets killed during the arrest, the government can't possibly give your BTC back.

What percentage of your income were stolen from you by criminals, then taken from them by government and returned to you?
Compare it with percentage of your income that is taken by government as taxes.

[MegaFall]

This is how you confiscate bitcoins:

"You know you are facing 20-25 years, right?! If you co-operate and provide us with your bitcoins we will make sure you only see 5 years in prison. If you don't play ball, we will also charge you with obstruction of justice and that will get you another 10 years".

And that's when you implement your 5th amendment right... oh, yeah they arbitrarily got rid of that without passing a new amendment. "obstruction of justice" charges are blatant violations of the 5th amendment. The government just doesn't give a fuck.

[El Emperador]

Easy scenario: the BTC owner puts his wallet ( core, multibit, electrum ) on an external Hard disk or on his computer hard disk.
The police simply seizes the whole hardware.

[OROBTC]

...

Scatter your Bitcoin around to at least four wallets ( I would have two or so online and two or so on hardware like Ledger or Trezor).  Save two of them (say) for .gov when they come calling.  And have other BTC hidden away.  Make sure they are mixed to cover the trail.

When The Man starts threatening, give up the smaller wallets (if you have covered your trail well).

Almost NO ONE can withstand torture.  If giving away the decoy BTC wallets does not stop .gov, then nothing will.  Once the torture starts for real, you would give them the others.

But, it is worth a try to let them have the decoys first.

[chmod755]

Almost NO ONE can withstand torture.  If giving away the decoy BTC wallets does not stop .gov, then nothing will.  Once the torture starts for real, you would give them the others.

But, it is worth a try to let them have the decoys first.

If I was working in law enforcement I guess I would tell my co-workers to increase the use of torture against Bitcoin users who are under investigation for serious crimes after reading your post.

[Shogen]

Almost NO ONE can withstand torture.  If giving away the decoy BTC wallets does not stop .gov, then nothing will.  Once the torture starts for real, you would give them the others.

But, it is worth a try to let them have the decoys first.

If I was working in law enforcement I guess I would tell my co-workers to increase the use of torture against Bitcoin users who are under investigation for serious crimes after reading your post.

This comic strip comes to my mind right after reading OP's post.

[Wary]

Almost NO ONE can withstand torture.  If giving away the decoy BTC wallets does not stop .gov, then nothing will.  Once the torture starts for real, you would give them the others.

But, it is worth a try to let them have the decoys first.

If I was working in law enforcement I guess I would tell my co-workers to increase the use of torture against Bitcoin users who are under investigation for serious crimes after reading your post.

This comic strip comes to my mind right after reading OP's post.

Probably because one of answer options was the 5$ wrench

[Wary]

...

Scatter your Bitcoin around to at least four wallets ( I would have two or so online and two or so on hardware like Ledger or Trezor).  Save two of them (say) for .gov when they come calling.  And have other BTC hidden away.  Make sure they are mixed to cover the trail.

When The Man starts threatening, give up the smaller wallets (if you have covered your trail well).

Almost NO ONE can withstand torture.  If giving away the decoy BTC wallets does not stop .gov, then nothing will.  Once the torture starts for real, you would give them the others.

But, it is worth a try to let them have the decoys first.

To save yourself from torture, don't let anybody know (or even suspect) that you may have coins.
To protect coins from extracting by torture, use
-Timelock, set for years
-Multisig, with co-signers out of reach of police.

[spazzdla]

A red-hot soldering bar in the ass of bitcoin holder makes miracles. )))

We are assuming that most modern governments (at least the US) wouldn't use violence/threat of violence to extract information.
At least from what we have heard until now, the seizure of bitcoins has been due to mistakes committed by the holders.  

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHH

LMAO OHH BAHAHAHAHAHA.

That was a good one.

(Yes they will and they will use things you can't even imagine in darkest depths of your brain)

The guys in charge and their pigs are the worst types of humans on the planet.. many get off to watching you scream in pain.