Japanese court orders cryptocurrency seizure linked to 2018 Coincheck hack. The Japan Times published on Wednesday that a court in Tokyo, Japan has ordered the recovery of crypto-assets traced back to January 2018’s Coincheck hack.
The NEM (XEM) cryptocurrency worth more than $530 million had been stolen from the exchange two years earlier in what turned out to be the biggest heist in the crypto industry.
Another article in a separate local publication shows that Takayoshi Doi is to confiscate about 4.8 million yen ($45,000) in bitcoin ( BTC) and XEM.
The 30-year-old doctor from Obihiro, Hokkaido, was arrested in March, with an accomplice, for purchasing stolen XEM and for violating a law against participating in organized crime. However, police do not believe Doi was responsible for the hack.
According to the reports, the Tokyo District Court placed a protective order on Doi’s digital assets ahead of a police-authorized confiscation of the money. Prosecutors say the tokens were deposited on a domestic cryptocurrency exchange.
Should the suspect be found guilty, the XEM will be seized and forfeited to the government, possibly for auction and compensation to the Coincheck victims.
On 26 January 2018, hackers plundered Coincheck’s 523 million XEM tokens. The estimated value of the coins at the time totaled $530 million but has since declined sharply. The stolen tokens are worth a mere $38 million today.
The Coincheck theft holds the title for the biggest theft in the cryptocurrency industry, dwarfing the 2014 $460-million theft from Mt Gox.
[image: Sorasak]
