Cryptocurrency worth $34 million linked to the dark web has been seized by the United States Department of Justice in one of its largest crypto forfeitures in history.
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 25: In this photo illustration of the litecoin, ripple and ethereum cryptocurrency 'altcoins' sit arranged for a photograph on April 25, 2018 in London, England. Cryptocurrency markets began to recover this month following a massive crash during the first quarter of 2018, seeing more than $550 billion wiped from the total market capitalisation.
Crypto Worth $34 Million Seized
As per a news story by Engadget, the Department of Justice or the DOJ announced that the Southern District of Florida has successfully seized a whopping $34 million worth of crypto from a dark web seller.
The news release of the US DOJ revealed that the seized crypto was taken from a South Florida resident who has been allegedly linked to selling stuff on the dark web.
The resident reportedly used an online alias to sell various items in numerous marketplaces found on the dark web.
To be more precise, some of the illegal items that the dark web seller has reportedly been listing included login credentials of various giant platforms, such as streaming services like Netflix and HBO Max, as well as ride-hailing apps, namely Uber.
This illustration photograph taken on July 19, 2021 in Istanbul shows a physical banknote and coin imitations of the Bitcoin crypto currency. (Photo by Ozan KOSE / AFP)
According to a recent report by Miami Herald, the case against the suspect was filed back in October, wherein authorities have estimated that it involved a staggering $47 million worth of illicit cryptocurrency.
However, due to the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the assets of the suspect have decreased in value when the Southern District of Florida has successfully seized the digital coin.
That said, even if the civil case estimated that the illicit crypto of the suspect accounts for around $47 million, the seizure was only worth $34 million as the price of Bitcoin clearly sank in the past months.
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Dark Web to Crypto Money Laundering
The lawsuit alleges that the suspect has been selling illicit items on the dark web, which has already gone to over 100,000 fraudulent transactions from the 2015 to 2017 period alone.
Despite that, the dark web seller suspect was not criminally charged for his alleged deceitful activities on various marketplaces.
Miami Herald noted in the same report that the authorities admitted that they did not have much evidence to file a criminal case against the alleged dark web seller.
So, instead of doing so, authorities targeted the illicit cryptocurrency in a civil case for laundering one crypto to another.
The authorities said that the crypto "chain hopping" technique that the suspect did was against the money laundering laws.
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Written by Teejay Boris
