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Kevin_Wolf t1_ivktv6o wrote

Reply to comment by dnap123 in TIL: That in 2019, some criminals were caught and 36 BTC was confiscated. The authorities valued the worth at €127,000 at the time and was sold 2 years later for €1.5 million. The criminals were returned €1.3 million due to the fact that the amount was expressed in Swedish Krona, not BTC by Wendals87

Instead of saying they confiscated 36 bitcoin, they said they confiscated 36 bitcoin worth 130000 Krona. Over the two years that the case took to go through, the value increased to 1.3 million Krona. Because they were ordered to recuperate the value of the 36 bitcoin at the time of confiscation, 3 bitcoin will be sold to cover the penalties and the rest will be given back.

The government is complaining that they should have noted the seizure value in bitcoin, not Krona. Had they done that, the 36 bitcoin would be kept by Sweden. However, because they did it the way they did, the culprits have to cough up the penalty and the state is obligated to give the rest back.

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Kelsenellenelvial t1_ivkwx00 wrote

Yep, it’s a notation issue on the part of whoever filled out the paperwork. Though we could also argue that it could have been the other way around. Police seized 36 BTC, later the value of BTC crashed and that BTC is only now worth 3 000 Krona. Now they owe another 127 000 Krona in reparations.

The only thing really out of the ordinary here is that the asset that was seized changed so much in value over such a short time. Normally it would be something like real-estate or similar assets that would only change a few percent in value and the overage/shortage wouldn’t sound so out of balance.

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