By location reportsAustralian Federal Police officer William Wheatley appeared in court after being accused of stealing 81,616 bitcoin seized during a drug trafficking investigation in 2019.
bitcoin Heist: crypto Wallet Found Amid Drug-Related Raid
The committal hearing at Melbourne Magistrates Court will take place this week after officer William Wheatley was first charged by the now-replaced Australian Commission for Law Enforcement (ACLEI) in December 2022.
The suspended federal police officer is accused of theft, handling property suspected of proceeding from criminal activities and using information to dishonestly benefit.
Initially, investigators believed that drug trafficking accomplices had stolen the money, but it was later revealed that a police officer was involved in the disappearance of the seized assets. In 2021, the case was reopened after new tracking tools pointed to foul play by a law enforcement officer.
The wallet with the digital asset was found during a raid on a location believed to be linked to an illegal steroid trafficker. The search was led by the Icarus Taskforce, a joint force of Victoria Police and the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
During the search, the Taskforce team discovered evidence in an encrypted email service for medication orders and payments, and discovered that “steroid-like” substances were paid for via bitcoin.
Upon further search, detectives found a Trezor hardware crypto wallet which was turned over to Icarus detectives. The Icarus Taskforce received a magistrate's approval for a “reconstruction” request three weeks after the raid, granting them access to the digital wallet and 81,616 bitcoin.
However, after accessing the wallet, detectives discovered that the fortune in digital assets had been moved from the wallet just four days after the device was seized.
“Circumstantial” evidence points to suspended officer
Wheatley allegedly stole 81,616 bitcoin from the crypto wallet that was identified in the drug and steroid trafficking investigation, according to court documents. The amount seized was worth approximately $450,000 at the time of the raid, and is now worth more than $6 million.
When the case was reopened in 2021, Cyber Crime Squad Detective Sergeant Deon Achtypis began to form the opinion that “a member of the police may have been involved in the cryptocurrency movement.”
The detective learned that the “relevant IP addresses” were linked to the Australian Federal Police headquarters in Melbourne and could not understand a “valid business reason” for this.
Wales-based crypto researcher Craig Gillespie then became involved in the case to trace the stolen funds for the Australian Police Integrity Commission. The researcher confirmed that 28 transactions were made to various crypto platforms between January 29 and April 11, 2019.
The transactions involved the third wallet where the original seized digital assets were previously sent. Additionally, some were allegedly linked to withdrawals made to Wheatley's personal bank account in September 2022.
According to AFP officer Jesse Wyatt, Wheatley was the only federal police officer in the search for Hoppers Crossing. Constable Wyatt told the court he contacted Wheatley to obtain information about the “metal device” as the suspended police officer was described as a “specialist” from the AFP Cyber Crime Division.
Luke Barker, Wheatley's lawyer, stated in court that the evidence against his client was circumstantial and that they would be disputing the alleged actions attributed to his client.
<img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-281529" src="https://technicalterrence.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Bitcoin-investigation-points-missing-due-to-police-foul-play.png" alt="btc, BTCUSDT, bitcoin” width=”980″ height=”496″ srcset=”https://bitcoinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/BTCUSDT_2024-02-14_14-27-26.png?w=1023 1023w, https://bitcoinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/BTCUSDT_2024-02-14_14-27-26.png?w=640 640w, https://bitcoinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/BTCUSDT_2024-02-14_14-27-26.png?w=768 768w, https://technicalterrence.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Bitcoin-investigation-points-missing-due-to-police-foul-play.png 980w, https://bitcoinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/BTCUSDT_2024-02-14_14-27-26.png?w=750 750w” sizes=”(max-width: 980px) 100vw, 980px” data-recalc-dims=”1″/>
bitcoin is trading at $51,383.1 in the daily chart. Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView.com
Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com
