UK police seize usb stick with Ethereum worth $ 9.5m

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British detectives seized $ 22.25 million from the operators of an international cryptocurrency scam. Among the items seized was a USB stick containing ethereum worth $ 9.5 million. The police are now trying to contact the victims of this scam to return their funds.

UK police seize crypto from USB stick

UK Police in Greater Manchester announced on Wednesday that its Economic Crime Unit had seized a USB drive containing “huge amounts of ethereum, the second largest crypto currency after bitcoin.”

The USB drive was discovered after police arrested a 23-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman on charges of fraud and money laundering. The couple have since been released under investigation.

The announcement details:

Specialized agents received reports that program officials had been in Manchester for a limited time and tracked them down, recovering an encrypted USB stick containing $ 9.5 million of stolen ethereum.

Police said an additional $ 12.7 million was seized days later when a “crypto vault” and “the code to access it” was located. A total of $ 22.25 million was seized from the crooks, the Economic Crime Unit confirmed. As of this writing, ETH is trading at $ 3,231.

The victims of the scam were based in the UK, US, Europe, China, Australia and Hong Kong. They “deposited money, including savings, into what they believed to be an online savings and trading service using Binance Smart Chain, which stores and records transactions made in cryptocurrency confirming their movement. and their value, ”the police said.

After depositing a large amount of money, the crooks shut down their website and transferred the funds to their own accounts.

The police detailed:

The sum amounted to 90% of the stolen cryptocurrency, and work has now begun to reunite it with the rightful owners, some of whom are still unknown and located across the world.

Chief Detective Inspector Joe Harrop commented: “We urge everyone involved [in] these platforms to exercise extreme caution and know that there are still significant vulnerabilities and risks that could put their economies at risk.

British police have recently been active in seizing cryptocurrencies. In July, Metropolitan Police seized £ 180million of crypto as part of a money laundering investigation after confiscating £ 114million of crypto a few weeks earlier.

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