Denied access to $378 million in Bitcoin wallets

The Irish Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) is currently unable to access $380 million in seized Bitcoin. Officials confiscated the cryptocurrency stored in 12 wallets from a drug dealer. However, he claims that the private keys were lost in a break-in.

No Bitcoin wallet access despite confiscation

The Irish Criminal Assets Bureau does not have access to 12 Bitcoin wallets seized from drug dealer Clifton Collins, according to a report in the Irish Times on Wednesday. If you believe that the Bitcoins were still around $56 million when they were confiscated, their value has so far increased to a whopping $378 million.

The Criminal Assets Bureau faces a challenge

The Criminal Assets Bureau officially seized the virtual currency from Clifton Collins, a former Dublin official, in 2020 following an Irish High Court ruling. Officials also issued a freezing order to prevent Collins from transferring them. Collins earns his income through drug deals. He grew cannabis in rented houses and then sold his harvest to a dealer, including in his hometown of Crumlin.

During the four years that the Irish Criminal Assets Bureau held virtual possession of the asset, officials always hoped that technological advances would eventually lead to its unlocking. However, there is apparently no imminent solution for the hoped-for Bitcoin access.

In 2017, officers accidentally caught Collins making drug deals after years of operating under the radar. The Garda Síochána, Ireland’s national police and security service, spotted a parked car while on routine patrol in the early hours of the morning. It caught their attention and they looked for it. Inside she discovered cannabis herb worth 2,000 euros.

Subsequent investigations revealed that Collins was using three rented houses, in Galway, Meath and Longford, to grow cannabis. The police discovered the crop worth 400,000 euros on the property in Galway. A court later sentenced Collins to five years in prison. The officials also confiscated other assets. These include a gyroplane, a motorhome, a fishing boat, a metal detector, an electric bicycle and several motor vehicles.

The Irish Times reported that between 2011 and 2012, Collins invested some of the proceeds from his drug business in Bitcoins. As the virtual currency gained value, he decided to spread his growing wealth across multiple virtual wallets. Collins subsequently set up 12 wallets to store the Bitcoins. He recorded the digital keys in a document.

Cannabis Grower Reveals Loss of Private Keys

When questioned by police, Collins said he then hid the document in a fishing tackle box at one of his rental properties in County Galway. He claimed the suitcase came after a break-in at his house “never to be seen again”. However, the subsequent evacuation of the property after his arrest could also have led to its loss.

The Collins case is just one of many cases around the world in which people lose the private keys to the wallets in which they store their Bitcoins and therefore no longer have access to their assets. In contrast, state coffers remained empty because convicted wallet owners did not hand over the private keys.