Australian Federal Police officer William Wheatley has appeared in court charged with stealing 81,616 BTC seized during an investigation into the sale of drugs for cryptocurrencies in 2019.
William Wheatley has appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates ' Court, pleading not guilty to misusing information he received as a civil servant. Wheatley's lawyer, Luke Barker, said the evidence against his client was circumstantial and that he would contest the charges.
Earlier, the Icarus task force, together with Victoria State Police and the Australian Federal Police (AFP), conducted searches of people suspected of selling steroids. During the raid, it was discovered that the criminals used encrypted messages to sell drugs, and they received payment for prohibited substances in bitcoins. During the searches, investigators also found a Trezor hardware wallet, which was handed over to the Icarus task force.
After obtaining permission from a magistrate to access the wallet containing 81,616 BTC, Icarus investigators found that all crypto assets were moved from the wallet just four days after the device was confiscated. At the time of the raid, the seized bitcoins were estimated at about $450,000, and now their value is more than $6 million.
Initially, it was assumed that the bitcoins were stolen by accomplices of drug traffickers, but later it turned out that a police officer was involved in the disappearance of the confiscated cryptocurrency. Thanks to new tools that helped identify "foul play" on the part of a law enforcement officer, the case was reopened in 2021.
Investigators found a link between the IP addresses and the Australian Federal Police headquarters in Melbourne. In the period from January 29 to April 11, 2019, 28 transactions were made on various crypto platforms, which involved the address to which the confiscated digital assets were previously sent. In September 2022, part of the funds were withdrawn to the personal bank account of Whitley, who was directly involved in the search.
Recall that last year in Russia there was a similar situation — a former FSB employee Maxim Zhizhkun received five years in prison for stealing 68 bitcoins from a hacker under investigation. In September, two Moscow police officers were detained in Moscow after stealing 10 bitcoins worth 26 million rubles.
