Russia "begins selling" 1,032 bitcoins seized in Infraud hacker organization case

ChainCatcher news, according to Cryptonews, Russia has begun selling the Bitcoin seized during its investigation of the Infraud hacker organization in 2023. This move indicates that Moscow aims to exchange over 1,000 Bitcoins for fiat currency. The Russian official news agency TASS confirmed this development, stating that Moscow will first sell nearly $10 million worth of Bitcoin confiscated from former investigator Marat Tambiev of the Russian Investigative Committee.

Last year, Tambiev was convicted of accepting bribes from the hacker organization. Prosecutors found hundreds of Bitcoins on his computer and storage devices. The former investigator was convicted of receiving 1,032.1 Bitcoins from the organization and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. However, the efforts of the bailiffs to liquidate all 1,032.1 Bitcoins became complicated due to legal obstacles. Tambiev appeared to have divided these Bitcoins into several smaller amounts. This means that the bailiffs must submit separate court rulings to allow Moscow to access these Bitcoins. Nevertheless, the bailiffs have successfully persuaded the court to allow them to sell the first batch of Bitcoins. They stated that Tambiev stored these Bitcoins in a Ledger Nano X hardware wallet.