Win For London Police And Cryptocurrency Community Over Sentencing Tied To First Bitcoin Theft Arrest
London Police and the cryptocurrency community are celebrating a win following the announcement of the upcoming sentencing of a 25-year-old arrested for stealing Bitcoin (BTC) worth $700,000.
The long arm of the law caught up with the perpetrator whose name is Grant West in 2017 through an undercover operation handled by the London Metropolitan Police. The arrest marked a huge win for the cryptocurrency community which has been facing cybercrime through cryptocurrency theft as one of its biggest threats.
Mick Gallagher, the police investigator leading the covert operation revealed that the investigation lasted for two years. Grant’s hearing was held in a British Court on May 2 during which the judge announced that he would be sentenced on May 25th. Grant’s girlfriend, Rachel Brookes was also sentenced to two years of community service.
West used the pseudo name “Courvoisier” as his identity on the dark web and even confessed that he was indeed responsible for some cyber-attacks in December last year. The investigations revealed that he orchestrated more than 100 attacks which targeted multiple companies including supermarkets, gambling shops, and cellphone companies among others.
Grant reportedly managed to hack into all those companies through phishing emails which he used to target unsuspecting people so that he could retrieve their personal information. He would then sell the private information on the dark web in exchange for cryptocurrencies which he then stored on private digital wallets.
Although West is barely a big-time cryptocurrency criminal, London police consider his arrest a major step forward especially due to the difficulty involved in tracking cryptocurrencies especially those involved in illegal activities or stolen coins. The London Police got their lucky break and managed to arrest Grant while he was logged in to his Bitcoin wallet.
Fiat currencies transactions are easier to track but one of the reasons why cryptocurrencies have received so much opposition is that they make it more difficult to keep track off especially in private blockchains. However, governments and regulatory authorities have been working together with blockchain firms to come up with solutions for streamlining the cryptocurrency market.
There has also been a call for crypto developers and cryptocurrency exchanges to improve the security of their platforms so that investors will be better protected from cybercrime. Cryptocurrency anonymity has also faced a lot of criticism for promoting illegal activities such as money laundering and drug trafficking despite it being marketed as a good feature.