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Comment by onewaystreet | Hacker News Reader

> As part of his plea, Bridges agreed to turn over the stolen bitcoin to U.S. agents.

He likely got less time for agreeing to turn over his private key. That might have been a bad decision depending on how many years he would have gotten otherwise. Those 1,600 bitcoin are worth over $10 million at the moment.

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Surely, that can't be how it works though, can it? If he refused to release the key and got say 10 years of prison, he wouldn't be free to spend them after getting out of prison - after all, they are still considered stolen property. Serving the prison sentence wouldn't magically make them his.

That is the justification for the much maligned forfeiture laws. Without them, or some other lawsuit, yes they are his.

Ok, so just for example - if I steal your car, hide it so no one can find it, go to prison for a year or two, get out.....the car is mine? Or a phone, or money, or pretty much literally anything else? A stolen property remains stolen until it's returned to its owner, it doesn't transfer ownership just because the thief served time.

No, it does not magically transfer ownership, but for what crime would you be prosecuted? You've already done time for stealing the car.

For not returning the stolen car and using a stolen item? That's not illegal in the US? (European here)

Are you not stealing it again at that point? I'd guess that you would be charged for a similar crime, just at a different date.

The judge will almost certainly order the return of the car (or a cash restitution) as part of the sentencing. If you don't return the car or don't pay the restitution you are in contempt of court.

More so, "possession of stolen property" is also a crime. The car doesn't magically become unstolen just because the theft went to jail.

What? No. Possessing stolen property is a crime.

This has absolutely nothing to do with civil forfeiture.

Civil forfeiture is when the getaway car is seized when you are robbing a bank.

Restitution is when you are ordered by a court to repay the victim for their losses that your criminal behavior caused. This case involved restitution, if he didn't comply with giving up the private keys he would be ordered to pay restitution.

Civil forfeiture doesn't impact restitution.

No, but if he managed to get the coins into an offline wallet he could in theory move to Cambodia, cash out his coins and live the rest of his life in exile.

Or if he was careful about it he could tumble his coins, and then withdraw a small amount of cash every month or so for the rest of his life while still living in the US.

And just hope the government just doesn't notice the coins leaving the wallet?

Nah, it was in his best interest to turn over the private keys. You also don't get less time for turning over stolen property, you are ordered by the court do that no matter what.

If he said "I lost the private key," he would have been ordered to pay restitution in cash. That means his assets (including his house) would be seized, when he gets out of jail his wages would be garnished forever, any inheritance he ever tried to claim would be seized, if he won the lottery that would be seized, his tax returns would be seized, etc. He would never be allowed to build any wealth at all until that restitution was paid, and it never would be because who makes enough money in their lifetime to pay a $10M restitution?

The coins are now completely worthless to him because those addresses will be watched forever, if any coins ever moved from that wallet, he would automatically go to jail. $10 million you can never spend or give away is not useful.

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