On December 1, following an investigation in collaboration with Japanese law enforcement authorities,the FBI seized the 3879.16242937 BTCin Ishii's walletafter obtaining the private key, which made it possible to transfer all the bitcoins to the FBI's bitcoin wallet.
Criminals should take note: You cannot rely on cyptocurrency to hide your ill-gotten gains from law enforcement," said Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman.
Ishii switched the transfer address for a Sony Life transaction to use a Silvergate Bank account under his control.
Ishii later converted the stolen funds into more than 3879 bitcoins
After converting the money to cryptocurrency, Ishii also tried persuading his supervisor and several Sony Life executives not to help investigators by emailing them a ransom note typed in English and Japanese.
"If you accept the settlement, we will return the funds back. If you are going to file criminal charges, it will be impossible to recover the funds," the note read.
On December 1, following an investigation in collaboration with Japanese law enforcement authorities, the FBI seized the 3879.16242937 BTC in Ishii's wallet after obtaining the private key, which made it possible to transfer all the bitcoins to the FBI's bitcoin wallet.
Criminals should take note: You cannot rely on cyptocurrency to hide your ill-gotten gains from law enforcement," said Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman.
Doesn't say how the FBI got the private key to Ishii's wallet.
Was it something like Ishii handing it over (e.g., for a lighter sentence), or did FBI find the wallet, seed backup, keys, or ???.
Exactly what I would like to know as well.
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Employee stole $153mm, tried to wash into BTC, left clear traces.
https://bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/us-returns-154-million-in-bitcoins-stolen-by-sony-employee/
Caught bc of old fashioned police work. Note there are at least two points where AML should have kicked in, but crickets...
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Ishii switched the transfer address for a Sony Life transaction to use a Silvergate Bank account under his control.
Ishii later converted the stolen funds into more than 3879 bitcoins
After converting the money to cryptocurrency, Ishii also tried persuading his supervisor and several Sony Life executives not to help investigators by emailing them a ransom note typed in English and Japanese.
"If you accept the settlement, we will return the funds back. If you are going to file criminal charges, it will be impossible to recover the funds," the note read.
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