Russia to “Start Selling” 1032 Bitcoins Seized in Infraud Cybercrime Case

BlockBeats News, January 10th. According to Cryptonews, Russia has started selling the Bitcoin seized during its 2023 investigation into the Infraud hacker organization. This move indicates that Moscow is looking to convert over 1,000 Bitcoins into fiat currency. The Russian state news agency TASS has confirmed this development, stating that Moscow will first sell the nearly $10 million worth of Bitcoin confiscated from Marat Tambiev, a former investigator at the Russian Investigative Committee.

Last year, Tambiev was convicted of accepting bribes from the hacker organization. Prosecutors found hundreds of Bitcoins on his computer and storage devices. The former investigator was found guilty of receiving 1,032.1 Bitcoins from the organization and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. However, efforts to liquidate the full 1,032.1 Bitcoins became complicated due to legal hurdles. Tambiev appears to have divided the Bitcoins into several smaller amounts. This meant that law enforcement had to seek separate court orders to allow Moscow to access these Bitcoins. Nevertheless, law enforcement has successfully convinced the court to permit the sale of the initial batch of Bitcoins. They noted that Tambiev had stored these Bitcoins in a Ledger Nano X hardware encrypted wallet.