Singapore court freezes $7 million in stolen Bitcoin and Ethereum

Justice Lee Seiu Kin issued a worldwide Mareva injunction, with $7 million worth of unnamed suspects’ assets frozen.

Singapore’s High Court on Friday issued a first-of-its-kind order freezing over $7 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) stolen reportedly from an American entrepreneur.

A report in a local news outlet noted that the court’s injunction stops the alleged thieves from misappropriating the stolen funds. The order also froze the suspects’ assets via a worldwide Mareva injunction.

The freeze essentially sets aside an equivalent of $7 million worth of assets belonging to the suspects, pending the conclusion of the case.

Suspects allegedly stole 109 bitcoin and 1497 Ether

The case dates back to January 2021 and involves the plaintiff’s attempt to trace and recover his stolen crypto. Per court filings, an unnamed person or group of people are said to have illegally accessed the private keys to two wallets belonging to the plaintiff, stealing 109.83 BTC and 1497.54 ETH.

While the names of the suspects have been redacted pending as the matter proceeds in court, it is alleged they are people known to the US entrepreneur.

Part of the stolen crypto amounting to about $1 million was traced to two cryptocurrency exchanges. Justice Lee Seiu Kin, in his order, also asked the two Singapore-based crypto exchanges to avail documents and registration details of the individuals behind the digital wallets.

Justice Lee said that the interim orders were well within the court’s jurisdiction, with the details before it sufficient enough to draw a line between who falls within the injunction and who does not.

Bitcoin’s value at the time of the alleged theft was around $34,000 while Ether was valued at around $1,250. BTC rose to an all-time high of 69,000 in November 2021 while ETH touched $4,880.

The past few months have seen both cryptocurrencies sell-off with BTC currently around $40k and ETH near $2.7k.