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They could, but then the IRS would have contend with an army of lawyers to claw their money back. In this case, going after a small time criminal with no connections is an easy win, so it makes sense from a resource allocation perspective for them focus on cases like this instead.

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Anyone who stole and has held on to 51,000 BTC is not exactly a small-time criminal any more.

They were when the theft occurred, but this is like when you steal a cargo container full of crap, and five years later discover that both the Mona Lisa and a nuclear football is in it.

> They could, but then the IRS would have contend with an army of lawyers to claw their money back.

Always reminds me on how Scientology managed to get charitable. tl;dr: Cause so much work for the IRS (or appear to be able to do so) and they'll back down.

The tax code is like the MasterLock of laws: looks complex on the outside, keeps honest people honest but is so weak it can be exploited by anyone willing to do so.

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