The FBI seized 180 million worth of bitcoin in collaboration with Japanese authorities, Sony and Citibank. As per the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the action was in order to return a substantial amount that was stolen from Sony earlier this year.
In particular, the company in question is a subsidiary of the Sony Corporation, with its base of operations in Tokyo, Japan.
And according to the DOJ, due to this joint effort by all of these different organizations, the ‘private key’ has been successfully retrieved.
Moreover, the DOJ revealed earlier this week that the United States has already ‘filed a civil forfeiture complaint’.
This is in order ‘to return more than $154 million that was allegedly stolen from a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Group Corporation’.
And according to the FBI, the address key is retrieved mainly thanks to the outstanding cooperation between all parties involved. This is something that the Department of Justice did not fail to mention in its official report on the matter.
Furthermore, the FBI already has identified the main suspect. The man responsible for this ‘heist’ is Rei Ishii, an employee at Sony Life Insurance Company Ltd., Tokyo. In the official charge, Ishii is accused of embezzling $154 million in May of 2021.
He then transferred all of the missing funds to a bank account in La Jolla, California. Afterwards, he just converted the funds into crypto.
According to the official statement, the bitcoin amount that FBI seized equals ‘to more than 3.879 bitcoins valued today at more than 180 million’.
The DOJ further explains that they seized the missing funds on December the 1st. In addition, the Department of Justice also discloses that they managed to retrieve the full amount of the missing bitcoin and that Rei Ishii is currently being criminally prosecuted in Japan.
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