FBI: Cyber Crime Syndicate Founder "Medvedev" Worth $800,000,000 in Bitcoin

[First77]

FBI Claims Cyber Crime Syndicate Founder Medvedev Was Worth $800,000,000+ in Bitcoins

https://news.bitcoin.com

[First77]

FBI coming to Bitcoin   

[CryptoBry]

Scam artists can be found in any kind of industry and Bitcoin or cryptocurrency for that matter is not an exemption definitely. In fact, scammers find cryptocurrency to be their new haven as it is easier to fool people with the enticement that cryptocurrency is new and amazingly profitable. It is time that there must be a way to minimize scams. It is time that we use the very thing we are promoting --the blockchain technology -- to stop these people from victimizing innocent people. It is not actually the fault of Bitcoin but the fault of these people whose intention is just to grab money out of people's purses promising that they can get to the paradise if we join their shenanigans. This Medvedev has became famous because of his surprisingly hit program online which is just actually a ponzi.

[jseverson]

Here's the proper link to the article:

https://news.bitcoin.com/fbi-claims-arrested-cyber-crime-syndicate-co-founder-medvedev-worth-800m-in-btc/

Looks like the arrest was made by Thailand authorities with cooperation of the FBI. It would be interesting to see whether the authorities can take custody of the coins, and how they'll split it. It could affect whether future regulations would treat Bitcoin as a currency or an asset.

I wouldn't be against having those coins lost forever either. 100k Bitcoins entering the market would certainly cause a splash, likely in a negative way.

[stompix]

Here's the proper link to the article:

https://news.bitcoin.com/fbi-claims-arrested-cyber-crime-syndicate-co-founder-medvedev-worth-800m-in-btc/

Looks like the arrest was made by Thailand authorities with cooperation of the FBI. It would be interesting to see whether the authorities can take custody of the coins, and how they'll split it. It could affect whether future regulations would treat Bitcoin as a currency or an asset.

I wouldn't be against having those coins lost forever either. 100k Bitcoins entering the market would certainly cause a splash, likely in a negative way.

Hmm, what was this guy doing with that amount of money?

CSD investigators have claimed that Mr. Medvedev was trading illegal products online in exchange for bitcoin.

You don't make 800 millions selling "products", only if those products are credits cards but even so...probably most of those bitcoins where acquired when BTC was below 1000, and even in this case...80 millions?
The entire SR bust was 10 times below that.

And speaking of auctioning coins, I checked the dates and it seems it took them almost a year to auction those coins in the SR case.
Now, these coins were actually seized abroad it will probably take a lot longer, if the FBI has them
But I doubt the Thai authorities won't ask for their share if not for all...
What a mess!!!!

[Nkan25]

The government situation in Thailand would lead me to speculate that the Thai government is probably going to keep those Bitcoins for themselves. I think its good that it cleans up the image of Bitcoin for institutional investors. Cash has been laundered and same with tech and commodities, hopefully, this just shows that Bitcoin is used the same way and that there are some controls. It still doesn't take away its decentralized application.

[First77]

You don't make 800 millions selling "products", only if those products are credits cards but even so...probably most of those bitcoins where acquired when BTC was below 1000, and even in this case...80 millions? The entire SR bust was 10 times below that.

$1,000,000,000 can do lots of serious crimes

[VitKoyn]

FBI Claims Cyber Crime Syndicate Founder Medvedev Was Worth $800,000,000+ in Bitcoins

https://news.bitcoin.com

I have read this news earlier and I wonder what the authorities will do with those Bitcoins that they got from this man, because it is a huge amount (100,000 Bitcoins) that it can affect the price of Bitcoin if they will dump/sell it to exchanges, maybe they can just auction it part by part?. Anyway this kind of people who are doing illegal things (hacking, selling drugs, etc) in the web or online and use Bitcoin are the plague in cryptocurrency space and I also found out that the FBI had been tracking this man for two years. It was good that he gets caught this time.

[QuestionAuthority]

What would happen if the Thai police decide to confiscate the btc and liquidate them. How quickly could you sell 100k btc and where would you sell them?

[boboking]

FBI Claims Cyber Crime Syndicate Founder Medvedev Was Worth $800,000,000+ in Bitcoins

https://news.bitcoin.com

I have read this news earlier and I wonder what the authorities will do with those Bitcoins that they got from this man, because it is a huge amount (100,000 Bitcoins) that it can affect the price of Bitcoin if they will dump/sell it to exchanges, maybe they can just auction it part by part?. Anyway this kind of people who are doing illegal things (hacking, selling drugs, etc) in the web or online and use Bitcoin are the plague in cryptocurrency space and I also found out that the FBI had been tracking this man for two years. It was good that he gets caught this time.

Unlike cash they can just dump it in the evidence room but in  this case there should be a wallet either it is hardware,desktop, laptop or a mobile gadget. That will be put into the evidence. Since it is in the web  i do know they can be recover the coins on another gadget or perhaps send it to another wallet. I wonder how will FBI keep this bitcoin to evidence?

[Carlsen]

The really interesting question for me would be what happened to the coins.
In a best case scenario the coins are hidden in some wallets and will never survace again.
That would mean the 100K less bitcoins criculating, so less supply so higher price for the rest.

[First77]

What would happen if the Thai police decide to confiscate the btc and liquidate them. How quickly could you sell 100k btc and where would you sell them?

Police might destroy those 100,000 Bitcoins. Police burns/destroys tigers, lions, elephants, rhinos bones and skins when they can earn multi-million dollars.

$400,000,000 worth of drugs are set on fire by police at one go.

[jseverson]

You don't make 800 millions selling "products", only if those products are credits cards but even so...probably most of those bitcoins where acquired when BTC was below 1000, and even in this case...80 millions?
The entire SR bust was 10 times below that.

Yeah, it looks like Infraud was created way back in 2001, so they could have easily been trading Bitcoin since its inception. There are no exact numbers, but the FBI apparently sold around 144k Silk Road coins, as opposed to an estimated 100k in this case, so Silk Road's is probably still bigger in Bitcoin terms.

What a mess!!!!

So true. No wonder countries always talk about Bitcoin being a contributing factor in crime lol.

[QuestionAuthority]

What would happen if the Thai police decide to confiscate the btc and liquidate them. How quickly could you sell 100k btc and where would you sell them?

Police might destroy those 100,000 Bitcoins. Police burns/destroys tigers, lions, elephants, rhinos bones and skins when they can earn multi-million dollars.

$400,000,000 worth of drugs are set on fire by police at one go.

Whoa, that’s a lot of burned coins. I didn’t know that about the Thai police. So the 21m coins might shrink again. Oh well, that’s better than dumping them on the market I suppose.

[First77]

So true. No wonder countries always talk about Bitcoin being a contributing factor in crime lol.

Bitcoin $1 to $1000 gave $800,000,000 in the hands of "cyber criminal" since he had 100,000 Bitcoin since the beginning

[stompix]

You don't make 800 millions selling "products", only if those products are credits cards but even so...probably most of those bitcoins where acquired when BTC was below 1000, and even in this case...80 millions?
The entire SR bust was 10 times below that.

Yeah, it looks like Infraud was created way back in 2001, so they could have easily been trading Bitcoin since its inception. There are no exact numbers, but the FBI apparently sold around 144k Silk Road coins, as opposed to an estimated 100k in this case, so Silk Road's is probably still bigger in Bitcoin terms.

What a mess!!!!

So true. No wonder countries always talk about Bitcoin being a contributing factor in crime lol.

What I don't get in this case is the huge amount of money...and their stupidity.
I might not think like a criminal but if I were in their place the most important thing that would always be on my mind would be...the FBI or the Interpol will come after me at one point!

So based on that, let's say they acquired those coins at 1000$. All of them.
Even by April last year this would have raised their profits by 200 millions. In December they could have sold for 1.4 billion$ or even more!!!!
What the hell were they still doing ? There is no way to even measure this greed and stupidity.

If the coins were not stored profits, but actually moving funds, then this operation would be at least 40x bigger than SR.
And that would be huge!!!

What would happen if the Thai police decide to confiscate the btc and liquidate them. How quickly could you sell 100k btc and where would you sell them?

Police might destroy those 100,000 Bitcoins. Police burns/destroys tigers, lions, elephants, rhinos bones and skins when they can earn multi-million dollars.

$400,000,000 worth of drugs are set on fire by police at one go.

Whoa, that’s a lot of burned coins. I didn’t know that about the Thai police. So the 21m coins might shrink again. Oh well, that’s better than dumping them on the market I suppose.

I don't think they burn confiscated money or gold or jewelry.
What every police destroys are illegal goods that are illegal to be sold. (In case of Russia french cheese  ).

But since we have this piece of fresh news:
https://news.bitcoin.com/bank-of-thailand-bans-banks-from-cryptocurrency-activities/

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) issued a circular on Monday asking “financial institutions not to get involved in cryptocurrency transactions for fear of possible problems from the unregulated trading,” Reuters

I really wonder how will they act.
That's a billion sitting right in front of them, more than 1% of their annual budget.

[alyssa85]

Here's the proper link to the article:

https://news.bitcoin.com/fbi-claims-arrested-cyber-crime-syndicate-co-founder-medvedev-worth-800m-in-btc/

Looks like the arrest was made by Thailand authorities with cooperation of the FBI. It would be interesting to see whether the authorities can take custody of the coins, and how they'll split it. It could affect whether future regulations would treat Bitcoin as a currency or an asset.

I wouldn't be against having those coins lost forever either. 100k Bitcoins entering the market would certainly cause a splash, likely in a negative way.

If the FBI gets hold of the coins, they won't release them all at once. They have a history of auctioning coins steadily in tranches  over many months, precisely because they don't want to be accused of moving the market.

[figmentofmyass]

Hmm, what was this guy doing with that amount of money?

CSD investigators have claimed that Mr. Medvedev was trading illegal products online in exchange for bitcoin.

You don't make 800 millions selling "products", only if those products are credits cards but even so...probably most of those bitcoins where acquired when BTC was below 1000, and even in this case...80 millions?
The entire SR bust was 10 times below that.

well, the darknet markets eclipse SR in size now. alphabay alone was 10 times the size of silk road, and that was last year. in spite of the continued heat, the darknet markets still seem to be booming. i think XMR has picked up a lot of traffic as well, making it tough to gauge the overall size of the markets.

but still, it's true. 100,000 bitcoins seized....that's crazy. i wonder if this syndicate was involved in some exchange hacks.

i wonder how much of this the american government can get their hands on, given the FBI involvement in the case. i'm also starting to wonder if the US marshall auctions like we've seen in the past will still continue. at some point, governments will want to keep some BTC in reserve.

[VclDm]

Here's the proper link to the article:

https://news.bitcoin.com/fbi-claims-arrested-cyber-crime-syndicate-co-founder-medvedev-worth-800m-in-btc/

Looks like the arrest was made by Thailand authorities with cooperation of the FBI. It would be interesting to see whether the authorities can take custody of the coins, and how they'll split it. It could affect whether future regulations would treat Bitcoin as a currency or an asset.

I wouldn't be against having those coins lost forever either. 100k Bitcoins entering the market would certainly cause a splash, likely in a negative way.

If the FBI gets hold of the coins, they won't release them all at once. They have a history of auctioning coins steadily in tranches  over many months, precisely because they don't want to be accused of moving the market.

That would be a bad thing for bitcoin as the FBI is trying to hold a large amount of bitcoin for their purposes. I think if the FBI really studied bitcoin, that might change some of my perceptions of bitcoin because with their technical level the FBI could do as much as they wanted with bitcoin. I will confirm more about this information.

[First77]

Too many hacking and stolen stories for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies