This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
It’s possible that whoever took the cryptocurrency just seized on an opportunity after seeing the cops’ failure to redact the images while scrolling through the National Tax Service’s press releases at dawn. It’s also possible that bad actors are closely monitoring South Korean police cryptocurrency announcements, following what The Block reported was “a series of crypto custody lapses.”
Or the cops posted it on purpose and tipped someone off to take advantage of the post.
Oh, that's fucking funny as hell. They totally deserved that. FUCK THE STATISTS
I'm really curious how they can get this out of the market without getting caught. As mentioned if you transfer this to any major exchange to convert to fiat, you'll be identified because of the KYC requirements. At least that's my understanding. So how do I - or this thief I mean - turn this into real wealth?
There are plenty of smaller exchanges without KYC. Further, most decentralised exchanges do not need KYC. And laundering the crypto through privacy-focussed coins makes the stolen funds (near) untraceable.
There are several methods to turn stolen crypto into real wealth. It is easy because there's still very little actual regulation to mitigate this and law enforcement does not have the capacity attuned to crypto-theft and crypto-laundering.
Methods include using shell companies (e.g Changpeng Zhao, former CEO of Binance, and the original founders of Bitfinex, the list goes on), creating, owning and wash trading their own cryptocurrencies (e.g. USDT of Bitfinex), using money mules, and "gifting" or allocating assets to friends, family, and employees or colleagues (e.g. Nayiem Willems of the Altilly and the XeggeX exit scams). Desirable real-world assets are real-estate: Renting out an apartment, villa, or BnB supplies them with infinite clean money. If their identity is known and being pursued by law enforcement, they will move to a different country or jurisdiction (e.g. Paul Edward Vernon of the Cryptsy exit scam). Sometimes they will bribe politicians or law enforcement.
I can recommend some documentaries on Netflix: "Bitconned" (about the Centra exit scam), "Trust no One: The hunt for the crypto king (about the QuadriCex exit scam), "Biggest heist ever" (about the mystery behind the Bitfinex "hack"). Coffeezilla on YouTube also has some reportages on the dodgy practices of the Bitfinex founders.
Thanks for the reply. I'll definitely check out some of those documentaries. This dude still seems exceptionally ballsey stealing from law enforcement because both they're going to be watching the receiving wallet(s) and transactions like a hawk, and due to all the coverage, a lot of other people will be as well.
Ah yes, "mistake", mmhm. I believe it.
Soon after South Korean police posted a press release boasting about seizing $5.6 million worth of cryptocurrency from 124 wealthy tax evaders, cops realized that they had mistakenly posted images that made it possible for a thief to quickly steal most of the seized assets.
I was hoping I would have more time to launder the money before this hit the news
