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DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

cnbc.com

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Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#3

Post by jacknews »

And this isn't the only one.

The ruling family in Cambodia is a big part of it, via their ownership in HuiOne (now renamed), which is essentially the clearing house for the 'industry'.

In fact the Thai-Cambodia border conflict is due to this industry, and a breakdown in the relationship between Thai and Cambodian leaders over it, with the wiley cambodian leader yet again provoking the sensitive border issue for political gain.

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#5

Post by _cs2017_ »

Is it actually usable, sellable Bitcoin worth $15B? Or is it some kind of storage that the owner couldn't really use easily for some reason?

$15B of real wealth is a large amount even for a powerful family, so I am surprised it's not a headline news in global media.

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#6

Post by hansonkd »

So in these cases of government seizing bitcoin, the people they seize from have unencrypted private keys?

The article just says "private keys the defendant had in his possession" does this mean he was holding onto private keys that had no passwords / encryption at all that unlocked $15B?

Or does the government have an alternative way of "seizing" bitcoin? I remember years ago people throwing around conspiracy theories that bitcoin was invented by the NSA / other 3 letter agencies with a backdoor to basically allow easy tracking / seizure of criminal assets.

Im not a conspiracy theorist, but stories like these were the government seems so easy to seize such incredibly large amounts of money so easily seems to suggest some other mechanisms that aren't public.

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#8

Post by advisedwang »

hansonkd wrote: post #6

So in these cases of government seizing bitcoin, the people they seize from have unencrypted private keys? The article just says "private keys the defendant had in his possession" does this mean he was holding onto private keys that had no passwords / encryption at all that unlocked $15B? Or does the government have an alternative way of "seizing" bitcoin? I remember years ago people throwing around conspiracy theori…

The forfeiture complaint [1] says:

> Chen personally maintained records of the wallet addresses and seed phrases associated with the private keys for each.

So he wrote the passwords down, basically.

[1] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nyed.53...

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#9

Post by advisedwang »

_cs2017_ wrote: post #5

Is it actually usable, sellable Bitcoin worth $15B? Or is it some kind of storage that the owner couldn't really use easily for some reason? $15B of real wealth is a large amount even for a powerful family, so I am surprised it's not a headline news in global media.

The forfeiture complaint [1] says:

> Chen personally maintained records of the wallet addresses and seed phrases associated with the private keys for each.

So it sounds like they have the seed phrases and thus the private keys.

[1] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nyed.53...

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