Australian Man Loses 24 Bitcoin, Waterfront Mansion and Mercedes-Benz After Police Seize Assets Tied to Crime

Based on reports from May 18, the Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce moved in to seize the coins and property worth 4.5 million Australian dollars

Federal agents in Australia have seized waterfront mansion, Mercedes-Benz and nearly 25 Bitcoin from a man as part of an ongoing probe into cryptocurrency theft.

The Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce moved in today to claim the coins and property worth 4.5 million Australian dollars (about $2.88 million US dollars).

No new criminal charges were filed against the Queensland man, identified only as Shane Stephen Duffy, and a court order was required to clear the way for civil forfeiture.

However, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said the agency began investigating him in September 2018 after authorities in Luxembourg identified suspicious Bitcoin transactions.

Those movements were linked back to Duffy, who in 2016 pleaded guilty to offenses related to the sale of League of Legends player data.

The 2011 breach of Riot Games saw personal information on 1.5 million users hit the web. Duffy wasn’t directly charged with hacking. Rather, he bought a copy of the data online and sold it on.

He’s also being investigated in connection with 950 Bitcoin stolen in 2013 from a French crypto exchange, according to the AFP.

Special powers granted by the Proceeds of Crime Act allowed the AFP to “restrain and forfeit” assets that could not be shown to have been derived from legitimate sources.

This enabled the agency to move in and seize property without first securing a criminal conviction or testing the evidence in court.

Critics have said this allows authorities to take property without a full criminal trial, while supporters said it stopped funds being used for more crime and put money back into community projects.

According to the AFP statement, the proceeds from the sale of the Bitcoin, house and car will go toward a special fund that underwrites crime-prevention programs and law enforcement efforts.

Since July 2019, the taskforce has frozen over $1.2 billion in assets, including homes, yachts, fine art and other crypto holdings, which are then used to benefit the community.

Investigators are relying on public blockchain data to track coins, but anyone holding Bitcoin that has been mixed with “tainted” funds may yet find themselves in a fight to prove their innocence.

Tracking each transaction, or UTXO, can be a heavy lift for everyday users, and some fear this trend could sweep up bystanders who unknowingly hold coins once linked to illicit deals.

Local reports show mixed feelings, with some residents feeling safer in the knowledge that high-value criminal gains will not slip through the cracks, while others are concerned about the rights of innocents and the burden of proof.

They question whether civil courts can live up to the strict standards required of criminal trials, especially as crypto grows more popular and cases like this will test the limits of how far authorities can go to reclaim suspect wealth.