US government makes progress on seizure of $4.4 billion worth of Bitcoin

The United States Supreme Court refused to hear a request to review the case. Approximately 70 thousand Bitcoins were seized by the American governmentThus, the way was cleared for the federal government to officially seize the amount of US$ 4.4 billion. The decision was announced last Wednesday (09).

This amount (equivalent to more than R$ 24 billion at current prices) belonged to Silk Road, a platform for the sale of illegal goods operating on the dark web. Crypto assets were transferred to a wallet controlled by the US government in 2020 and Since then, federal authorities have struggled to maintain ownership of Bitcoins..

The request for review, which was rejected by the American Court, was made by Battle Born Investments. A few years ago, company claims to have purchased cryptocurrencies from website shut down by FBI in 2013 He claimed the money through bankruptcy proceedings.

With justice denied, the federal government can now move forward with the seizure of 69,730 Silk Road bitcoins. It is not yet known what will be done with this amount, but Crypto assets likely to be auctionedas in other similar cases.

The agent involved in the incident was arrested

$4.4 billion worth of Bitcoin was transferred to the US government brokered by former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent Tigran Gambaryan.. A year after the seizure, he left the US IRS and took a job as head of investigations at Binance.

Representing the exchange in a case where it was accused of money laundering and tax evasion, Gambaryan traveled to Nigeria to testify in early 2024 and was arrested.. His lawyers have been asking for help from the administration for the release of Joe Biden for months, but no step has been taken from the government so far. wired.

The former IRS employee pioneered the use of cryptocurrency tracking in investigations conducted by the agency. In one of the cases he filed, Child sexual abuse video network bustedAs a result, more than 300 people were arrested and 23 children were rescued.