"Seized Assets Disappear"... Prosecution Loses Hundreds of Billions of Won in Bitcoin

Phishing Attack Suspected Between June and July Last Year
320 Bitcoins in Illegal Gambling Proceeds Vanish

Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office building.

It was belatedly confirmed that the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office had hundreds of billions of won worth of Bitcoin, which had been seized as criminal proceeds and kept in custody, stolen through a phishing crime.

According to the legal community on the 23rd, the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office lost a significant amount of Bitcoin under its custody as seized assets between June and July of last year.

The prosecution believes that the coins were stolen as a result of a phishing crime, such as hacking, which occurred while accessing a scam website. The prosecution only became aware of the loss in December of last year and is currently tracking the whereabouts of the missing Bitcoin.

The exact amount of stolen Bitcoin has not been disclosed, but it is estimated to be worth around 70 billion won (approximately 700 billion won). It is highly likely that this refers to the 320.88 Bitcoins seized in the 'overseas gambling site operation case,' for which confiscation was recently finalized by the Supreme Court.

This Bitcoin was seized by the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency in 2022 from a woman in her 30s, identified as A, who operated an illegal gambling site in Thailand.

A was indicted on charges of operating a gambling site after receiving 24,613 Bitcoins between 2018 and 2021 together with her father. The police succeeded in seizing 320 of the approximately 1,800 Bitcoins that A attempted to conceal in Korea. The remaining 1,400 or so (worth about 100 billion won at the time) had already been siphoned off by someone who accessed A's account during the investigation.

A was sentenced to two years and six months in prison on appeal, and the court ordered the confiscation of 320.88 Bitcoins. This ruling was finalized by the Supreme Court on the 8th of this month after both sides' appeals were dismissed.

The problem is that the 'phishing theft' was discovered during the prosecution's inspection of the seized assets ahead of the Supreme Court's ruling.

Previously, in an attempt to locate the missing 1,400 Bitcoins, the prosecution conducted an investigation, including a search and seizure of the police, and concluded that A had made false statements, leading to additional charges such as perjury.

However, with even the 320 Bitcoins that were seized and kept by the prosecution disappearing due to phishing, a massive amount of criminal proceeds related to this case is now at risk of being lost entirely.

A prosecution official stated, "It is true that we were victims of phishing," but added, "We cannot confirm the specific connection of the seized Bitcoins to the case or the exact amount of the loss, as the investigation is ongoing."