The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) of Australia is accusing a federal police officer of having lost 81.62 Bitcoin (BTC) stored in a Trezor hardware wallet, which was recovered at the crime scene. The allegation relies on advanced crypto-tracking tools that unravel a great network of digital transactions that lead back to the perpetrator.
Following the raiding of a residential premise by the Australian authorities, the wallet was discovered only to be faced with a baffling discovery upon accessing it weeks later. According to a recent report, the $309,000 BTC hoard taken during the 2019 operation has become untraceable, with the authorities claiming that it was stolen by an officer William Wheatley after the investigation.
Crypto Detective Software Unveils Alleged Bitcoin Heist
The current valuation of these digital assets that is close to $4.2 million USD has triggered an unparalleled legal clash. Detective Sergeant Deon Achtypis, who was leading the cybercrime squad, initially theorized that an insider within the criminal network was behind the heist.
It took an interesting twist after the discovery of a very vital piece of evidence device that had a seed phrase to the stolen hardware wallet. This important data, a combination of random-word-sequence, unintentionally open the door to the investigators for chasing the footprint of the Bitcoins.
The employment of the crypto tracing software, the fast-growing phenomenon among law enforcement agencies worldwide, gave the police some additional leverage in the case of Wheatley. The software, carefully examining the IP addresses related to the unlawful transaction, in the end, traced a very damning link back to the accused officer.
The integration of such advanced technologies resonates with the ever-increasing efforts by the enforcement agents to fight the illegitimate activities in the Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Noteworthy, in August 2023, The Canadian police force’s adoption of the Chainalysis Reactor was announced, which indicates a unified fight against crypto-related crimes.
Additionally, gaining strides in the crypto forensic software increase the amount of recovered stolen Bitcoins. The stats of the current year unveiled the total amount which was outstanding at $674 million, gained from the more than 600 big-scale crypto-hacks this year, showing the effectiveness of the those technology.
In the face of the amassing allegations, Wheatley stands firm in his own innocence and adamantly denies the many charges of corruption involving the office and also his role in the criminal activities. During the continuance of the legal proceedings, Wheatley doesn’t give up on the challenging of the charges that are subjected to him, this way the court case is dragged on and on.
This trend evolves amidst the Trezor’s disclosure of a malicious hack which affected over tens of thousands of the users – a development which heightens the speculation about the safety and depository of the digital assets in the dawn of digital currency.