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Bitcoin Surge Means the Swedish Government Owes a Criminal £1.2m
*Insert joke about crime paying.
The explosion in the cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has resulted in an ‘unfortunate’ ruling that means the Swedish Government now owes a convicted drug dealer 33 Bitcoins.
Now valued at 14 million krona (£1.2m), the criminal’s ill-gotten gains were worth a mere one-tenth of that when he was convicted in 2019.
By the time the Swedish Government got round to auctioning the cryptocurrency to pay off his judicial debts, only three of the criminal’s 36 Bitcoins were required, meaning the remaining one and quarter million-or-so pounds worth left over needing to be paid back.
Speaking about the unique circumstances, prosecutor Tove Kullberg told Swedish Radio: “The lesson to be learned from this is to keep the value in Bitcoin, that the profit from the crime should be 36 Bitcoins, regardless of what value Bitcoin has at the time.
“I think we should probably invest in an internal education in the [prosecution] authority, as cryptocurrency will be a factor we’ll be dealing with to a much greater extent than we are today.
“The more we increase the level of knowledge within the organisation, the fewer mistakes we will make.”
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The anonymity and relative ease-of-use surrounding the use of cryptocurrencies has made it popular with criminals.
In particular, Binance, has recently been put under the spotlight for its role in failing to tackle money laundering leading to new rules regarding the platform’s use.
Crypotocurrency in general has been hogging headlines in both tech and mainstream news spheres, with the largest crypto heist in history occurring, then turning out to the work of a ‘white hat’ hacker who ended up returning all the stolen funds.
