Frenchman arrested for € 1m theft in Bitcoin

A French entrepreneur, accused of having stolen 182 bitcoins – or about 1.2 million euros at current prices – to his ex-partners, was arrested. The 37-year-old quickly admitted to stealing from his old company.

It all started in 2012 when several friends decided to co-found a startup specializing in IT. After a few years, the young shoot grows and an internal conflict breaks out, after which one of the leaders is sacked.

According to information obtained by The Parisian, the latter, a 37-year-old man, then decides to take revenge on his former partners by stealing the bitcoins belonging to the company in question.

The cybercriminal, who still had access to the startup’s portfolio, is removing BTC drop by drop so as not to exceed alert thresholds – which only associates know – and not trigger alarms.

But in December 2018, his former employees noticed the loss of 182 BTC and file a complaint. Then followed an investigation by the cybercrime section of the Paris prosecutor’s office.

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The cybergendarmes eventually manage to trace the financial flows out of the wallet and put an identity on the thief, who was finally arrested on December 20, 2019 in Ouistreham in Normandy.

Charged for “organized gang robbery”, “laundering of organized gang robbery” and “fraudulent access, maintenance and modification of data in an automated data processing system”, he was placed under strict, precise judicial control the Parisian.

Part of stolen bitcoins was transferred to the agency for the management and recovery of seized and confiscated assets (Agracs). Investigators are currently looking for potentials accomplices.