The Aussie federal police officer refutes accusations that he transferred BTC to Binance from a hardware wallet located at the crime scene.
At the site of the crime, a federal police officer was accused by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) of Australia of erasing a Trezor hardware wallet containing 81.62 Bitcoins. The authorities alleged that he transmitted the Bitcoins into his possession using crypto trading software.
The Australian police discovered the hardware wallet during a drug search at a residence. However, it took them approximately three weeks to obtain court permission to access it, according to a recent report.
However, upon accessing the wallet, it was discovered that it contained no Bitcoins, as they had allegedly been transferred out by federal agent William Wheatley shortly after the assault.
The hardware wallet allegedly contained 81.62 Bitcoin during the 2019 seizure, valued at $309,000. Nevertheless, its current market value stands at around USD 4.2 million.
As stated by Detective Sergeant Deon Achtypis of the cybercrime squad, at the outset, authorities believed that the Bitcoin theft was attributable to an associate of the criminal organization.
The police discovered a device containing the seed phrase for the hardware wallet, a sequence of 12 to 24 arbitrary words that can be used as a recovery method if the wallet is lost or stolen, which sparked suspicion.
However, following a comprehensive examination of the IP addresses utilized to access the pilfered Bitcoin via crypto tracing software, Achtypis purportedly discovered a connection to Wheatley.
“I formed the opinion that a police member may have been involved in the movement of the cryptocurrency.”
Globally, law enforcement agencies are implementing crypto-tracing software to combat illicit activity involving digital assets.
The Canadian police force declared the implementation of Chainalysis Reactor software in August 2023 to facilitate the tracing of illicit cryptocurrency transactions.
In addition, developments in the technology of crypto detective software are increasing the proportion of stolen cryptocurrencies that are recovered. Cointelegraph reported on January 29 2023, over $674 million was recovered from over 600 large-scale cryptocurrency breaches.
#PeckShieldAlert 2023 saw 600+ major hacks in the crypto space, resulting in ~$2.61B in losses, with $674.9M recovered.
$1.51B lost to hacks (excluding #Multichain unauthorized withdrawals) & $1.1B to scams. This marks a 27.78% decrease from 2022. #DeFi protocols remained prime… pic.twitter.com/G7PIU3WyrX
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) January 29, 2024In the interim, Wheatley, charged with utilizing his position as a public officer for personal benefit, theft, and involvement with criminal proceeds, is pleading not guilty to the allegations.
Reportedly, he is prepared to contest the allegations about the Bitcoins pilfered from the Trezor wallet. This follows Trezor’s disclosure that it was compromised, with approximately 66,000 users affected.
On January 17, Trezor disclosed illicit access to a third-party support portal. Individuals whose information had been exchanged with Trezor’s support staff since December 2021 may have had their data compromised, the company warned.