Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office Recovers All 320 Lost Bitcoins

Korea Economic Daily

Summary

The Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office said it has recovered all of about 320 bitcoins (about 31.7 billion won) stolen after access to a phishing site.
Prosecutors said they identified the wallet to which the bitcoins were ultimately transferred, froze it, and blocked transactions through domestic and overseas cryptocurrency exchanges.
Prosecutors said they will continue a strict investigation to uncover the full circumstances of the case, including probing the phishing-site operator and domain registration firms.

The Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office said on the 19th that it has recovered all of about 320 bitcoins (worth about 31.7 billion won) that were stolen after investigators affiliated with the office accessed a "phishing site."

Prosecutors explained that they identified the wallet to which the bitcoins were ultimately transferred immediately after recognizing the theft on the 16th of last month. They added that they monitored the wallet in real time to impose a freeze and blocked transactions through domestic and overseas cryptocurrency exchanges.

Prosecutors said they recovered the full amount through follow-up measures, including investigating the operator of the phishing site and domain registration firms. No suspects have reportedly been arrested so far.

The Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office drew controversy after bitcoins seized while investigating a gambling-site case were stolen in August last year. The investigators in charge were reported to have accessed a phishing site while checking the amount of bitcoin during a handover of duties.

A prosecution official said, "We will continue to conduct a strict investigation to clearly uncover the full circumstances of the case."

Park Si-on, ushire908@hankyung.com

BTC