[skizm]

Dang, so if this person just left the BTC in a cold wallet for 5 years, did no more crimes, and stayed put, he could have gotten away free and clear? Or does #3 essentially mean they can just extend the limit forever if they can come up with a plausible sounding enough reason?

[aaronmdjones]

No, option #3 only considers the law as written. For example, the statute of limitations for wire fraud can be 10 years if the victim is a financial institution and some other conditions are met (18 USC 1343, 18 USC 3293):

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1343 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3293

[Cthulhu_]

Initially it was worth "only" 600K, I think he might've gotten away with it if he cashed out at that point.

I wonder if the clock resets if he converted it to real money after those five years, I mean selling stolen goods is a separate crime from stealing, isn't it?

I think the best thing he could've done is to move to a country without an extradition policy with the US. Then of course comes the challenge of cashing out BTC that's been marked as stolen, but I'm sure there's ways and means. But for 3.2 billion, someone can live like a king for the rest of their life. It's just that because it's marked, they won't ever be able to go home or go where they want.

It sounds like one of those "will you press the button" catch-22's.

[paulpauper]

They could issue an indictment anyway under John Doe. This was done with the DB Cooper case. The government is good at breaking its rules.