Men hand over bitcoins worth €2 billion to German police
A total of 50,000 bitcoins have been provisionally seized during investigations in the eastern German state of Saxony in what is believed to have been the biggest seizure of its kind to date in Germany.
The bitcoins were worth around €2 billion ($2.17 billion) at Tuesday's exchange rate, Kay Anders, the press spokesman for the Saxon State Criminal Police Office (LKA), confirmed to dpa on Tuesday.
One of the suspects in the investigation had voluntarily transferred the virtual currency to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the spokesman said.
The investigations were directed against a 40-year-old man and a 37-year-old man. According to the LKA, it is suspected that the men operated a piracy portal until the end of May 2013. They are said to have purchased bitcoins with the proceeds.
The investigations by the Dresden Public Prosecutor General's Office, the state of Saxony's LKA and the tax investigation department of the Leipzig tax office were supported by the BKA, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and a Munich-based IT expert firm, the spokesman said.
According to Patrick Pintaske, spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in Dresden, no charges have yet been brought against the men.
"If an indictment is brought, the investigation will be closed," said Pintaske.
According to the Saxon LKA, this seizure of bitcoins by law enforcement authorities is the most extensive in Germany to date.
One of the men had transferred the bitcoins to a so-called wallet - an account for the virtual currency - of the BKA. No final decision has yet been made on cashing in the bitcoins, the agency said.
In order to combat structural and serious cases of situational corruption, Saxony set up its own investigation unit called INES in 2004, which is also investigating this case.
Since 2009, the group has reportedly also been involved in the prosecution of high-profile and particularly significant investigations into serious or organized crime.
In addition to public prosecutors, the group also includes a specialist for analysing financial and banking matters.
