South Korean prosecutors recovered approximately $21.4 million worth of Bitcoin stolen from their confiscated evidence storage last year, according to local media reports.
In December of last year, the Gwangju District Prosecutor’s Office discovered that the Bitcoin seized during a raid on a gambling platform had gone missing. An internal investigation later revealed that the Bitcoin had been stolen by hackers in August, when investigators accidentally accessed a phishing website and entered the seed phrase to restore the wallet.
By Tuesday, the hackers had returned 320.8 BTC to the wallet managed by authorities, according to local news agency Digital Asset. Prosecutors stated they had blocked transactions on centralized exchanges related to the hacker’s wallet, making it difficult to convert or sell the Bitcoin. The hacker’s identity remains unknown.
After retrieving the assets, prosecutors transferred the Bitcoin to a domestic exchange for safekeeping and will continue tracking to identify the perpetrator.
The incident also prompted a nationwide review of the management of seized digital assets by investigative agencies. Last week, an inspection revealed that the Gangnam Police Station in Seoul could no longer track 22 BTC stored in a cold wallet since 2021.
Meanwhile, the Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police confirmed they have launched an internal investigation to clarify the circumstances of the leak and to determine whether there was internal collusion.
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