Three Arrested Over $3 Million Crypto Theft

The price of Bitcoin has fallen over the past few weeks, seeing the price go from around $6,000 to below the $4,000 key resistance level. Over this past week, the leading cryptocurrency has gone down almost 20 percent overall. Despite this, people still want to get their hands on the crypto, most of all are criminals trying to make a quick buck.

Specifically, there has been an attempt to steal 5 million Bulgarian lev from users in Bulgaria.

The authorities arrested three suspects last week and they have been charged with the theft of cryptocurrencies which is estimated to be worth around $3 million. It was reported by the Bulgarian newspaper 24Chasa at the start of the week that the suspects were arrested leaving two of the three men to be detained following their arrest. The third man in question was set at 50,000 Bulgarian lev but it is isn’t clear as to how this has been paid, if it has been paid at all.

The authorities got ahold of the computers which were used in the theft - this includes the cryptocurrencies which were stolen too. The report by the newspaper says that the thieves had a good understanding of cryptocurrency trading and used innovative mechanisms and specialised software for the theft. Also found by the Bulgarian police was hardware portfolios, flash drives and notebooks which were used to store the account listing.

Even though it still isn’t clear how the suspects manage to get their hands of such a massive amount of cryptocurrencies an investigation is still ongoing.

Seizing the $3 million worth of crypto added to the much larger amount seized by the police in Bulgaria in May last year. At the time, the police had managed to seize 200,000 Bitcoins when it was trading at just $2,354 which meant there were was over $450 million worth of crypto.

Over the years, there have been plenty of cryptocurrency related crimes. On the 14th November, a hacker from Manhattan was arrested by the US federal agents for allegedly stealing around $1 million from a Silicon Valley executive by hacking into his phone. Nicholas Truglia now faces over 20 accounts of felony after he hacked in six peoples phones using the SIM-swapping scheme.

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