I think they sold it soon after seizing it. If they kept it there wouldn't be much of a reason to adopt the Euro. Lol

I didn't know about this story. Certainly sounds like something interesting happened to those bitcoins.

In order to ascertain the validity of the reports that have been making noise around the web recently, the only place worth trusting is the Southeast European Law Enforcement Centre (SELEC). The document was first referenced by Bulgarian investigative journalism website Bivol.bg.

In the press release issued by the SELEC, Bulgarian authorities reportedly concluded a raid on a group involved in cyber-crime that was compromising the computer systems of the country’s customs to avoid and save taxes.

Here is the original SELEC report:

PRATKA/VIRUS in the field of cybercrime, committed by compromising the countries Customs computerized systems in order to avoid and save taxes. The organized criminal group consisted in Bulgarian nationals having connections in The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Hellenic Republic, Romania and Republic of Serbia. The modus operandi used was recruiting corrupted Customs officers in all involved countries with the purpose to infiltrate a virus in the Customs’ computerized systems. Once the virus installed, from distance, the offenders were able to finalize various transports, as in the Customs’ system appeared that the cargo was already checked and passed.

The Bulgarian authorities have searched more than 100 addresses, suspects and vehicles. A large quantity of money was seized, as well as equipment, devices for communication, computers, tablets, bank documents, etc. 23 suspects were arrested, 5 of them acting as Bulgarian Customs officers. As result of this criminal activity the damages recorded by the Customs Agency, only for year 2015, is around 10 million Leva. As well, up to now were found in the virtual space bitcoin wallets of the main suspects with a total value of 213,519 bitcoins. As a reference, the value of one bitcoin is rating to 2354 USD. The offenders choose the bitcoin way of investing/saving the money, because it is rather difficult to be tracked and followed.

The judicial procedures against the offenders are currently ongoing, eight of them being already permanently detained.

Here is the Bulgarian blog that gets the controversy going about where the Bitcoin went:

“There are no seized bitcoins in this case,” Geshev adamantly stated. He then embarked in confused explanations that owning bitcoins was not illegal, and the prosecution was not dealing with “people’s hobby” to mine bitcoins.

However, proceeds from criminal activity are within the jurisdiction of the Prosecutor’s Office and, under the Penal Procedural Code, when seized, serve as evidence in court, no matter the currency.