By the order of the Federal Court in Brazil, police were authorized to carry out the sale of seized Bitcoins which were ultimately sold and earned sale proceeds to the tune of US$ 1.1 Million. The auction was held by a crypto trading Brazilian firm namely Mercado Bitcoin. The sold Bitcoins were once the property of a company known as “Tradergroup”, which was claimed by the Brazilian Police as an operator of a crypto fraud scheme that embezzled millions of dollars from the investors.
While in most parts of the world, the selling of seized digital assets is a common practice. However, the event earmarked in the history of Brazil as the local police sold seized Bitcoins for the very first time.
As per the Brazilian reports, it was reported that in 2019 Brazilian Federal Police had seized Bitcoins from the crypto company called Tradergroup. Allegations were raised against Tradergroup that it was a fraud company and was engaged in fraudulent practices by offering fake schemes. On the basis of allegations, an inquiry was initiated against Tradergroup and during the course of the investigation, the allegations turned out to be true. While arresting the culprits running the Tradergroup, the police also seized Bitcoins from the firm’s custody.
The media reports suggested that at least 5 raids at different intervals were carried out for apprehending the crypto fraud schemes.
Thereafter, the matter of Tradergroup was taken into Court and the seized Bitcoins were ordered to be kept within the judicial custody. However, the case of Tradergroup has been decided very recently. The Federal Court of Brazil, which was proceeding with the case, decided that the seized Bitcoins should be sold. In this connection, an order was passed by the Court authorizing the local police to engage the services of an auctioneer for executing the sale. On the directions of the Court, the police then selected Mercado Bitcoin to execute the sale, which is a crypto trading platform.
Successfully the sale has been carried out by Mercado Bitcoin and the firm has sold seized Bitcoins against US$ 1.1 Million. By the order of the Court, some portion of the sale proceeds will be utilized towards refunding the victims of Tradergroup’s Ponzi scheme. However, the remaining sale proceeds will be deposited in the Government treasury.
Mercado Bitcoin revealed that never before in Brazil any seized crypto assets were sold. This is for the first time that such an action has been taken by the Brazilian Governmental Authority.
As regards the sale, it was told by Mercado Bitcoin that it managed to successfully sell a total of 9 Bitcoins. However, there were three auctions held with each containing 3 Bitcoins. When, Bitcoins were seized from Tradergroup’s custody, at that time, Bitcoin’s worth was under US$ 8,000. Mercado Bitcoin said that sale proceeds are enough that even after compensating the victims, millions of dollars will go into the Government treasury.
