Police investigate alleged theft of $4.8 million in cryptocurrency seized by National Tax Service

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Company in central Seoul [NEWS1]

 

Police have launched an investigation into the alleged theft of cryptocurrency seized by the National Tax Service.

 

The National Police Company (NPA) stated on Saturday that it has assigned the matter to it
s cyberterrorism
response division and begun a preliminary inquiry.

 


 

“We started analyzing the movement of the digital belongings and monitoring the perpetrator as quickly as we acquired the investigation request from the National Tax Service on Feb. 27,” a police official stated.

 

In a press launch despatched out on Thursday to advertise the NPA’s efforts to gather delinquent taxes, the company inadvertently uncovered a mnemonic code that serves because the grasp key to a chilly pockets. The collected digital belongings, price $4.8 million, had been stolen shortly afterward.

 

A chilly pockets is a bodily digital machine used to retailer digital belongings. Nevertheless, with a mnemonic code, it’s doable to revive the pockets and switch cash with out the bodily machine.

 

The police are investigating whether or not the code was leaked by way of high-resolution images distributed to some media retailers. If a suspect is recognized, their costs might embody violations of the Act on Promotion of Info and Communications Community Utilization and Info Safety, in addition to fraud involving the use of computer systems underneath the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Particular Financial Crimes.

 

This isn’t the primary time that cryptocurrency seized by investigative authorities has been misplaced or stolen. Final month, the Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Workplace misplaced a considerable quantity of Bitcoins that it had been holding as confiscated proof. The Gangnam Police Precinct in Seoul additionally confronted controversy after it belatedly found that Bitcoins that had been voluntarily submitted in reference to a criminal offense had been leaked.

This text was initially written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the assistance of generative AI instruments. It was then edited by a local English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

BY KIM JI-HYE [[email protected]]