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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in cooperation with Citibank, Sony and Japanese law enforcement agencies, has taken action to “return more than $154 million in funds allegedly stolen from subsidiaries of the Tokyo-based Sony Group.” The U.S. Department of Justice explained in detail: “As a result of this coordinated effort, investigators obtained the’private key’ needed to access the Bitcoin address.”
Citibank and Sony helped FBI seize $180 million worth of Bitcoin
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced this week that the U.S. has “filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit” to “return more than $154 million in funds allegedly stolen from a subsidiary of the Tokyo-based Sony Group Corporation.”
The FBI and Japanese law enforcement agencies investigated the case “with the strong assistance of Sony and Citibank”, and the announcement added:
As a result of this coordinated effort, investigators obtained the “private key” needed to access the Bitcoin address.
Rei Ishii of Tokyo Sony Life Insurance Company allegedly “misappropriated” $154 million in May and transferred the funds to an account controlled by a bank in La Jolla, California. He then quickly “converted these funds into more than 3,879 bitcoins worth more than 180 million U.S. dollars today.”
At the current price of Bitcoin, this pile of Bitcoin It is worth nearly 188 million U.S. dollars.
The Ministry of Justice explained that “according to the FBI investigation, these funds were confiscated by law enforcement on December 1, 2021”, and detailed:
The law enforcement agency was able to track the transfer of bitcoins and determined that approximately 3,879.16 bitcoins (representing the proceeds of stolen funds from a Sony Life subsidiary) had been transferred to a specific bitcoin address and then transferred to an offline cryptocurrency cold wallet.
“All bitcoins that can be traced back to the theft have been recovered and kept intact. Ishii is under criminal charges in Japan,” the Ministry of Justice pointed out. “The FBI’s technical expertise was able to trace the subject’s encrypted wallet and confiscated the funds.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said: “We intend to return the stolen funds to the victims of this bold theft.”
What do you think of this case? Please let us know in the comments section below.
Image Source: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons
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