TIL that in 2021 the Swedish government had to return over $1.5 million worth of BTC to a convicted drug dealer because the prosecutor failed to account for the huge appreciation in BTC price between when the ill-gotten coins were confiscated in 2019 and when they were auctioned by the state in 2021

The Swedish government confiscated 36 bitcoins from a man in 2019 because he had earned them illegally through drug sales. The prosecutor, Tove Kullberg, successfully argued in court that he should be stripped of ownership of the coins. The coins were to be sold by the state for Swedish kronor. However, when Kullberg made her argument, she used the fiat value of the BTC at the time to make her point. 36 BTC was worth around $136,000 USD at the time, or 1.3 million kronor, so this was the amount the drug dealer was determined to owe the state.

However, by the time the Swedish Enforcement Agency actually auctioned the BTC to cover the fine, two years had passed since the coins had been confiscated, and the 2021 bull run was well underway. This meant that the state only needed to sell 3 of the 36 bitcoins to cover the fiat amount that had been used in court. Therefore, the Swedish government was legally obliged to return the remaining 33 BTC to the drug dealer, which was worth around $1.5 USD at the time.

Later, the prosecutor remarked:

Unfortunately in many way […] It has led to consequences I was not able to foresee at the time. […] The lesson to be learned from this is to keep the value in Bitcoin, that the profit from the crime should be 36 Bitcoin, regardless of what value Bitcoin has at the time.

She also added:

The more we increase the level of knowledge within the organization, the fewer mistakes we will make.

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