Alitin Mint Coin Breach

[BitcoinNewsMagazine]

I have 2 Adam Smiths and 2 Jean D'Arcs purchased in August 2015.

One of the Adam Smiths has been compromised.

18maxv3kVNNKUE9NZhcYcfHhcRrtSXC8eE

The others remain funded.  This implies that the perpetrator has either not raided all the coins or else had limited access to the private keys to a batch of Adam Smiths.  I have sent Richard the batch number of the breached and intact coins which may help in identifying the timeline of when / who was involved.

The affected coin number is 113/600 but my 118/600 was not affected in the 26/2/17 theft.

Resale market just dropped to zero. And how can you be sure the balance on your other coins will still be there tomorrow? I would get the bitcoin safe and call it a day.

[1713971756]

1713971756

[1713971756]

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[bitenvy]

I have asked once again about public list for coins stolen, information about who had access to private keys, etc.  JR refuses to answer any of my questions now that the FBI is involved.  I will continue to find all the addresses that I can that are funded/not funded to help out.  I am up to 66 coins that have had funds stolen.  I have also found a few that are still funded.  But, not very many.

[BurtW]

This is strange.  I bought two coins.  The first one is an Adam Smith number 60/600.

https://blockchain.info/address/1QLQDk2KotPqqBjQQK9atEqmmmjBZySPwc

It was swept 2017-02-26 02:31:26, so I lost 2 BTC on that deal.

My second coin is a Joan of Arc number 17/600.  But when I went to check on it I found that it had never been funded!  Were we supposed to fund these ourselves? Check it out:

https://blockchain.info/address/1KzvorTcd6W497eYdk7Jc9U1YLNTF1A6LK

When I bought it I assumed it was funded.  I am sure I paid more than 1 BTC for the thing.  What is the deal with that?

[Quickseller]

I have asked once again about public list for coins stolen, information about who had access to private keys, etc.  JR refuses to answer any of my questions now that the FBI is involved.  I will continue to find all the addresses that I can that are funded/not funded to help out.  I am up to 66 coins that have had funds stolen.  I have also found a few that are still funded.  But, not very many.

TBH, my interpretation of the situation is that this guy is trying to delay his customers from contacting law enforcement by both claiming that the FBI has been contacted and by promising that the BTC will be reimbursed (yet offers no specifics on this).

IMO, the overwhelmingly most likely scenario is that he kept (a portion of) the private keys, and decided to redeem the coins with BTC trading at ATH, and if this is not the case, then the private keys were stolen due to his own gross negligence.   

[CanaryInTheMine]

I have asked once again about public list for coins stolen, information about who had access to private keys, etc.  JR refuses to answer any of my questions now that the FBI is involved.  I will continue to find all the addresses that I can that are funded/not funded to help out.  I am up to 66 coins that have had funds stolen.  I have also found a few that are still funded.  But, not very many.

If law enforcement is involved he is not going to answer any questions outside of the investigation, especially if he talked to a lawyer, who would tell him no say nothing.

[bitenvy]

Yeah, I've seen this all play out before.  JR has assured me I will get a refund "this week".  I will let everyone know if this even happens. 

[BurtW]

What is the total amount of coins stolen so far?

[bitenvy]

What is the total amount of coins stolen so far?

I have found 66, but having a hard time finding any more that were stolen on 2/26.  I'm starting to research a different way to find other addresses, which is why I have found a few funded coin addresses.

[BurtW]

What is the total amount of coins stolen so far?

I have found 66, but having a hard time finding any more that were stolen on 2/26.  I'm starting to research a different way to find other addresses, which is why I have found a few funded coin addresses.

So 66 + the unfunded coin I have = 67 so let's call it 67 x 1300 = $87,100

That is a good chunk of change.

They must know every single person that ever had access to the private keys.  The pattern of theft is also a great clue as they can correlate the batches to the people who had access.  So, I think there is a chance they will catch the bastard.

These things take time, usually months, so I would not expect a quick turn around on this.

[bitenvy]

x2.  Adam Smith coins had 2BTC on them.  So it's more like $167,000+.  

[BurtW]

x2.  Adam Smith coins had 2BTC on them.  So it's more like $167,000+.  

Yes, my calculation is incorrect and yours is correct.

Also, there is a possibility they will catch the thief.  It is a very stupid crime.  There is a very small finite group of people that ever had access to the lists of private keys.  The thief is one of those people.  Since there is such a small group of possible suspects there is a chance the thief will be caught.

They will seize all of the thief's assets so even if he sold the BTC there is a chance we might get paid back.

Of course, I am not holding my breath waiting for this to happen.

But in the mean time I am suggesting that any claim on any of the recovered funds will probably involve proving you have the swept or accidentally unfunded coin.

So my suggestion is to keep your coins and do not sell them to all of these people saying they want to buy the silver unless you are aware that you may not be able to make a future claim - the buyer will get any future claim.  

Just a thought.

[BurtW]

I have asked once again about public list for coins stolen, information about who had access to private keys, etc.  JR refuses to answer any of my questions now that the FBI is involved.  I will continue to find all the addresses that I can that are funded/not funded to help out.  I am up to 66 coins that have had funds stolen.  I have also found a few that are still funded.  But, not very many.

If law enforcement is involved he is not going to answer any questions outside of the investigation, especially if he talked to a lawyer, who would tell him no say nothing.

Has there been any proof that the authorities have been contacted??
And if he talked to lawyer, seems like there is something to hide already.....

First, it is pure conjecture he has hired a lawyer.
Second, it would be wise to do so.  Hiring a lawyer does not have anything to do with guilt.

[Ticked]

And only one person ever sees the private keys before they are destroyed from our records--and that person is me.  I am the CEO and I engrave the coins myself.  I also do the ciphers and much of the packaging.  Tamper proofing cases like this is a challenge.  It's slow and tedious work.  But thorough.  We built in 6-8 weeks just in case we got big orders.  We would rather our customers be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.  

I see a lot of posts regarding who had access to the coins before they were slabbed, but we've already had a statement regarding this from Alitin.

[TheNewAnon135246]

And only one person ever sees the private keys before they are destroyed from our records--and that person is me.  I am the CEO and I engrave the coins myself.  I also do the ciphers and much of the packaging.  Tamper proofing cases like this is a challenge.  It's slow and tedious work.  But thorough.  We built in 6-8 weeks just in case we got big orders.  We would rather our customers be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.  

I see a lot of posts regarding who had access to the coins before they were slabbed, but we've already had a statement regarding this from Alitin.

That makes the whole thing a lot more clear. I hate to admit it but I tend to agree with QS here.....

[coin@coin]

Oh boy... this is very odd. Alitin are very nice looking coins.

Very sad to hear another Physical BTC manufacturer having this sort of issue. 

We should see how this unfolds, glad I don't have any Alitin coins, been tempted to get a few in the past but never did.

Sucks very much.

However how do we know for sure 50/60 coins were actually emptied by a thief rather than people just emptying themselves because of BTC price hike or to protect themselves from theft?

[cryptoheadd]

However how do we know for sure 50/60 coins were actually emptied by a thief rather than people just emptying themselves because of BTC price hike or to protect themselves from theft?

Their tamper-evident cases are still intact.
So, it's more likely that someone swept the keys, rather than multiple people trying to "scam" Altin Mint.

[msin]

Oh boy... this is very odd. Alitin are very nice looking coins.

Very sad to hear another Physical BTC manufacturer having this sort of issue. 

We should see how this unfolds, glad I don't have any Alitin coins, been tempted to get a few in the past but never did.

Sucks very much.

However how do we know for sure 50/60 coins were actually emptied by a thief rather than people just emptying themselves because of BTC price hike or to protect themselves from theft

Also, all of the coins considered "swept" were done so on the specific date, 2/26. So you wouldn't have had any individuals cracking their own coins on that exact date, unless it was pure coincidence, which isn't likely.

[BurtW]

Following mine:

https://blockchain.info/address/1QLQDk2KotPqqBjQQK9atEqmmmjBZySPwc

to here:

https://blockchain.info/address/1L9TVzK8CDMsfKW9LRpkVZcTisPX272eFK

You can easily see that my 2 BTC from my coin were combined with the theft of 34 more BTC from 17 other coins and in this one sweep the thief got 36 BTC.

These 36 BTC were then sent to a mixer to be washed.

It looks like my coins ended up here:

https://blockchain.info/address/1AHZ4H8YgM1hMYHYGHaN89QKgf1YvnTuBD

Before being sent back out into the world. So that is the end of the trail on the block chain.

So, there is no doubt that it was theft.

Post script:

The person that now owns this block of 256 coins from the mixer has coins from the theft, but the way mixers work the current owner of these coins is most definitely not the thief.  The thief got other coins out of the mixer.

https://blockchain.info/address/1tUcP5FxpPTJhkS3bEpKXj1qbCgUK913U

Post post script:

The owner of the tainted coins (again this is NOT the thief) has used a few and the remaining coins are now here:

https://blockchain.info/address/14RXq8sYdHnxtVocnYnvJphZCmyF7EjJjC

[cryptodechange]

I still have 17 Adam Smith coins listed for sale that were never funded, I consider all of these keys compromised.

- 1 key was swept on the 26th like most
- 1 was redeemed a few days ago which I presume was overlooked and fortunate for the owner
- 1 was in transit whilst this was announced, which was great timing

Unsure why one was not swept like the others. There was probably a range of presumed funded coins; I remember either hand picking/letting the customer choose the coin #, so there was probably a gap with non-funded coins that they overlooked when using their bot/software to redeem the keys in a singular instance, probably with no intention to try again (unless they realised a key(s) were missed)

[RichardForsyth]

Richard Forsyth here.

I am sorry for not posting as often as I should.  I keep having issues logging in.  I want to keep up with everyone, and I want you to know we are doing our best to fix everything.  

Yes, we WILL restore stolen Bitcoins.

At this point, we're going to have to borrow the money, but we're working as fast as we can.  Our goal is to do it as fast as possible.  We need anyone who has been robbed to contact us and provide us a picture of their unbroken coin casing, if they haven't already. Thank you to those who have done this promptly.  This will be very helpful.  Our process will be to verify that there are no public address duplicates with applicants for refund, and to match up the public address with our sales records.  If you did not acquire your coin from us directly, please let us know from whom you bought it, if you can recall.  

As far as revealing technical details of the theft: we're still trying to figure out how it might have happened.  We can't release individual names for privacy reasons, and also because the FBI has been contacted and saying too much at this point might frustrate an official investigation.  We have not verified how many coins are stolen at this point.  This will take some time.  But as thefts are verified, we will be providing refunds as fast as we can.  

More about the authorities: I personally went to the FBI on Monday morning--the morning after I found out that some thefts occurred.  I have given them as much information as I could--what I knew at the time, along with what little I suspected--along with my contact information; and I am at their beck-and-call in this process.  Meanwhile, I am answering emails as best I can while trying to coordinate the refund effort.

We have also re-launched our site at AlitinMint.com.  

My contact info is there, and I URGE ANYONE who thinks they've been the victim of a theft to contact my email at raforsyth@alitin.com and I will try to coordinate your refund as fast as I can. I will also do my best to answer your questions and ... provide a punching bag if it will help in any way.

If you have any concerns about my personal complicity, I also urge you to email me and stay in contact with me. I'm not going anywhere until this is fixed.  Unless of course I am sent to jail for a theft that I did not commit.  That would only frustrate my efforts to undo as much damage as I can, and it would leave the real thief at large.  

For those who are still considering contacting "authorities": Please feel free to do so.  It's really not a bad idea, and it might even help.  If you do contact authorities, be sure to mention that I have been to the FBI and the process is already started.  I can assure you that I have more than enough motivation at this point to make everything right. Give them my name, my email, and I will talk to them and work with them.

I am personally very hurt over so many family and friends being robbed. I'm angry that anyone has been robbed who was under my protection. I don't expect any personal sympathy, and I reiterate that your anger is entirely justified.  

Contact me at raforsyth@alitin.com if you have not already, if you think you are the victim of a theft having to do with Alitin Mint, or to just get a feel for me to increase your confidence that I am telling the truth and doing my best.  Right now I am fielding dozens of emails and calls per hour, and I may at times be on the phone or at the offices of the FBI answering questions or assisting with investigative efforts; and If contact increases quite a bit, I might be hard-pressed to respond quickly at certain times.  But these days, I'm sacrificing sleep so I I will put as much time in to it as I am physically able.  I'm barely eating, and honestly I am shaking constantly because of how hurt and angry I am that we were all robbed.  My short-term and some mid-term memory are a little groggy at times too.  I guess stress can do that.   So if you communicate with me and I seem a little "out of it," that's why.