Organized crime in the form of Bitcoin rarely happens, but Bulgaria is a great example. Earlier this year, the Bulgarian law enforcement seized more than 200,000 bitcoins from criminals which are worth more than $3 billion given today’s price of Bitcoin.
There is also an official press release from the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC) to confirm this. The regional organization confirmed that a total of 213,519 bitcoins were seized in May 2017 by twenty-three Bulgarian nationals who were arrested during the operation.
Allegedly, it was a customs fraud scam that ‘gave out’ the Bitcoin holders at the time. As the Bulgarian authorities say, “The offenders choose the bitcoin way of investing/saving the money, because it is rather difficult to be tracked and followed.”
However, the situation was way worse than just people investing their money in Bitcoin. The government further alleged that the criminals developed a virus which was used to hack into the Bulgarian Customs computers and allow the perpetrators to skip the fees when transporting goods into the country. The virus was uploaded by bribed agents, saving the perpetrators more than 10 million leva (Bulgaria’s national currency) which is equal to $6 million.
It is for the government to see what to do with the seized Bitcoins at this point. According to a recent report, there is still no sound decision on what will happen. What is sure is that as Bitcoin’s price is surging, the Bulgarian authorities are also getting more value for their seized bitcoins.
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