The Swedish government is in trouble. They must return Bitcoin worth USD 1.6 million to a drug convict. That's because Bitcoin continues to rise in price while the prisoner is in prison.
Prosecutor Tove Kullberg explained that two years ago, he succeeded in persuading the court that 36 Bitcoins belonging to the drug dealer should be confiscated and auctioned because they were obtained from illegal businesses. At that time, Bitcoin was calculated and recorded in the form of money, with a value of 'only' in the range of USD 137 thousand.
However, by the time the Swedish authorities processed this Bitcoin auction, the value of the favorite cryptocurrency had soared significantly higher than when the unnamed suspect was arrested. Even the value of USD 137 thousand can be redeemed for only 3 Bitcoins.
This means that 33 Bitcoins must be returned to the prisoner with an estimated value of USD 1.6 million. Although it may be obtained from an illegal business, there are regulations that the government still has to return it.
"This is indeed very unfortunate. This case actually led to consequences that I could not have foreseen at the time," said Tove.
Indeed it was the first time in Swedish legal history that cryptocurrency had been confiscated from criminals. So this can be a lesson in the future so that the Bitcoin confiscation process no longer causes huge losses.
“I think we should invest in in-house education for authorities, because cryptocurrencies will be a factor that will become our business and will be bigger than it is today. The more we gain knowledge, the less mistakes we will make,” advises Tove.