Court dismisses inmate’s $354 million Bitcoin claim

According to ChainCatcher, reports from Decrypt indicate that the U.S. Court of Appeals on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Florida man Michael Prime, who sought to recover over $354 million worth of Bitcoin. Prime claimed that these bitcoins were stored on a hard drive that authorities destroyed in 2019 when he was arrested for forgery and identity theft. The court ruled that Prime waited too long to file his claim and that he had previously told investigators, probation officers, and judges that he almost did not hold any cryptocurrency, which contradicts his later claim of owning “close to 3,443 bitcoins.” Federal agents ceased their search for the bitcoins based on his early statements and subsequently destroyed devices, including the involved orange hard drive. Prime was sentenced to more than five years in prison in 2020.