Lol, what a story this is - talk about government ineptitude:
"
Swedenâs government is being forced to pay out more than ÂŁ1m to a jailed drug dealer after bitcoin he amassed through illegal online sales massively appreciated while he was in custody.
Prosecutor Tove Kullberg successfully argued in court that the man should be stripped of his illegally earned bitcoin, in court valuing his crypto stash at 1.3m Swedish kronor (ÂŁ100,000).
âIt is unfortunate in many ways,â she told Swedish Radio. âIt has led to consequences I was not able to foresee at the time.â
By the time the Swedish Enforcement Authority began auctioning off the 36 bitcoin, they had appreciated in value tenfold, meaning only three had to be sold to generate the amount demanded.
The authority now has to return the remaining 33 bitcoin, worth about ÂŁ1.1m, to the man, even though Kullberg only two years ago meticulously detailed how he had earned it through selling drugs.
âThe lesson to be learned from this is to keep the value in bitcoin, that the profit from the crime should be 36 bitcoin, regardless of what value the bitcoin has at the time,â Kullberg said.
She pointed out that the case was one the first in Swedish legal history where cryptocurrency had been seized and that there was at the time no established precedent on how to treat bitcoin profits in court.
âI think we should probably invest in an internal education in the [prosecution] authority, as cryptocurrency will be a factor weâll be dealing with to a much greater extent than we are today. The more we increase the level of knowledge within the organization, the fewer mistakes we will make.â
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/08/20/sweden-pays-drug-dealer-1m-seizing-bitcoin/
