3.4B in stolen Bitcoin inside Cheetos container | Hacker News Reader

3.4B in stolen Bitcoin inside Cheetos container

businessinsider.com

17 pointsmeifun17 comments

How is that stealing exactly ? Looks more like state agents "stealing" again by using their legal powers

This, I almost did a spittake when I saw the Silk Road mentioned. Just salty that 50k wasn’t in the pile they got out of the ordeal to begin with.

If you set up an online marketplace and thieves come in and siphon your money away.. they should get to keep it, because “finders keepers”?

Because you sent them the cryptos on a voluntary basis. If you made an error, you can nicely ask them back, but they can nicely refuse. There is no notion of property, who owns the keys owns the management of the coins

That is just your opinion.

>If you made an error, you can nicely ask them back, but they can nicely refuse.

How can you not see that "nicely" refusing is against the law after you have been prosecuted? You might argue that if someone sends you money you don't want, you only have to send it back once they get a warrant by a court but that isn't the problem here.

It doesn't seem like you're grasping the definition of "voluntary"

Mistakes happen

Of course mistakes happen .. but if you're making voluntary mistakes .. then you've got bigger problems than what we are discussing here.

If you can always decide a posteriori your actions were not voluntary then there is no definition of voluntary

Money laundering is a crime too you know.

Bitcoins transactions are public, duh

Now I understand why money laundering regulations are so painful. I didn't expect money laundering to be publicly endorsed on HN but here we are. At least it's reassuring to not have to speculate on moral decay.

You are aware that criminal enforcement is a game of chance where you can never be sure what fish you're catching next? There is no such thing as "being salty" that would make the process any easier. When a criminal fails to cover his he gets found, it is that simple.

I don't know how you got an endorsement of money laundering out of my post. I was amused by the snafu, nothing more.

Weren't the bitcoins generated from a crime? I'm not the biggest fan of civil forfeiture but this seems pretty a straightforward, lawful seizure.

2 interesting things for me:

> you can hide $3.4 billion in a cheetos can

> the feds tracked him down 11 years after the event

also interesting, but i would rather have known how they tracked him...

> A photo shared by the department shows that the crypto tin originally contained Cheetos-brand popcorn in both Flamin' Hot and Cheddar flavors.

I think they didn't really track him. I think he drew suspicion by being filthy rich without official source of income. But not sure how they got a warrant for his house

Tax evasion?

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