German police confiscated over $2 billion worth ofBitcoins(BTC) during investigations into the movie2k.to pirate movie streaming site, according to a report fromDer Speigel. This is the largest-ever currency seizure by German law enforcement according to Germany’s State Criminal Police Office (LKA).
According to the Der Speigel report, 50,000 Bitcoins were secured by police in Saxony during the investigation of two men (aged 40 and 37) suspected of running a German portal for movie2k.to through May 2013 and squirreling away their profits ascryptocurrency. Remember — at that time, 50,000 BTC wasn’t worth anywhere near the $2 billion+ it is now. In 2013 BTC started the year valued at $13 and ended at about $750. If we say the funds were converted to BTC at a value of around $500, the 50,000 Bitcoins would have represented about $25 million in hidden loot.
The two men currently under investigation seem to have been quizzed about “commercially unauthorized exploitation of copyrighted works under the copyright law and subsequent commercial money laundering,” reports Der Speigel. That’s legalese for ‘making money from stolen movies and then hiding it.’ Since the accused individuals seem to have ended their movie2k.to work in May 2013, it’s possible they thought they’d gotten away with it.
Pirate movie streaming portal movie2k.to is said to have hosted more than 880,000 illegally copied movies and TV shows between the fall of 2008 and May 2013. According to the source report, this isn’t the first large sum of money discovered as a result of investigations into the site. A programmer who worked on movie2k.to hand over $27 million in BTC to police while in pre-trial detentionin 2020. Those funds were classified by police as “damage compensation.” But $2 billion is nearly 75 times that amount.
A surprisingly broad range of governmental and legal organizations have worked together to progress the movie2k.to investigations and prosecutions. According to Der Speigel, the General Prosecutor’s Office in Dresden, the state criminal office of Saxony, and the tax investigators from the tax office in Leipzig were supported by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), as well asthe FBI— yes, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Also probably playing an important role has been an “IT expert” company based in Munich.
Investigation into movie2k.to is ongoing, and the prosecutor’s office says it is still looking for additional suspects.
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom’s Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
