Law enforcement authorities in Saxony, eastern Germany, have recently acquired 50,000 bitcoins from the former operator of Movie2k.to, a notorious pirate site.
This significant voluntary deposit, totaling over $2.1 billion at the current Bitcoin-USD exchange rate, is in a state-controlled wallet, marking a record figure. As reported by BleepingComputer, Kay Anders is a representative of the Saxony state police. Additionally, he characterized this case as the most extensive bitcoin seizure by law enforcement in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. Anders stated that the seized funds would be secure in the authorities’ Bitcoin account. They will wait for a court decision on the next course of action.
Significant Gains through Illicit Movie Distribution
Operating from 2008 to 2013, Movie2k.to served users in English and German-speaking areas. It offered them links to stream or download movies and TV shows without hosting copyrighted material directly. Although it didn’t host protected content, the online streaming platform encountered significant scrutiny, legal battles, ISP-level restrictions, and domain changes due to its integral role in enabling piracy. Legal action by the Motion Picture Association of America led to the closure of the original Movie2k.to in May 2013.
Continuing their investigation, police and FBI specialists successfully identified two suspects associated with the original platform. The individuals, a 40-year-old German and a 37-year-old Polish national were eventually located. Notably, one of the suspects voluntarily surrendered Bitcoin to law enforcement authorities. It supposedly proceeds from Movie2k’s activities, including advertising revenue and membership subscriptions.
During its operational years, Movie2k.to held a prominent position among the top 25 most-visited websites in Germany. It provided access to tens of thousands of movies for illegal download. It attracted a global user base that downloaded nearly 880,000 copies of films throughout its five-year existence. Following Movie2k’s shutdown, several websites with similar names and content emerged in its wake.
How Does Criminal Exploitation of Cryptocurrency in Schemes Work?
The detained programmer, who played a key role in running the website, shrewdly invested the earnings in Bitcoin. He witnessed its value surge to over 40,000 euros per coin. Initially apprehended in 2019, the programmer has recently been released after admitting to his involvement and actively cooperating with authorities. Note that one such authority is the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. Note that additional information regarding the ongoing investigation is confidential. The FBI and forensic IT experts are also providing support, according to Cybernews.
Individuals involved in criminal activities have converted their illicit proceeds into Bitcoin to evade detection. Note that people can store Cryptocurrency funds in private digital wallets or on hard drives. It allows perpetrators to sidestep traditional bank scrutiny and complicate authorities’ efforts in seizure operations. Over the years, law enforcement has developed methods to trace digital currency and link anonymous accounts to real individuals.
This significant confiscation represents the second major incident linked to Movie 2K. As per information from the German news site TarnKappe, one of the accused individuals had ties to mega-downloads.net. Hanover police have been actively pursuing the identification of this platform’s operators since 2009. Similar to the recent German police action, the US federal authorities had previously seized $3.3 billion worth of bitcoins from an individual engaged in hacking and theft from the Silk Road dark web store.