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by advisedwang 245 days ago
The forfeiture complaint [1] says:

> Chen personally maintained records of the wallet addresses and seed phrases associated with the private keys for each.

So it sounds like they have the seed phrases and thus the private keys.

[1] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nyed.53...
1 comments
blueprint 245 days ago
is Chen in custody?

If not, why wouldn't he just transfer the funds to a new seed?

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advisedwang 244 days ago
All the wallets were drained years ago and [1] says the bitcoin "are already in the government’s possession, custody and control".

[1] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nyed.53...

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_cs2017_ 244 days ago
I'm now completely confused. Wallets were drained years ago? So $15B worth of bitcoin was already transferred? From whom to whom? And then why is this entire post considered news, if the wallet is empty?
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advisedwang 243 days ago
My guess is that as soon as feds got their hands on the seed phrases they transferred the bitcoin to a wallet they made. The case then ground on for a few more years and now that they have the indictments all lined up, they are actually doing the forfeiture process.

The actual taking of the bitcoin is merely taking custody of the bitcoin. The forfeiture process changes the actual _ownership_. Think in terms of when the feds take cash from a car. FIRST they actually take the cash THEN LATER they file the forfeiture.

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