PANews reported on January 8 that according to Bloomberg, the U.S. Federal Court in Austin, Texas, recently ruled that early Bitcoin investor Frank Richard Ahlgren III must disclose the passwords of his cryptocurrency accounts and related storage devices so that U.S. prosecutors can unlock digital assets worth about $124 million. Ahlgren was sentenced to two years in prison for tax fraud related to cryptocurrency sales and was required to pay $1 million in compensation to the government.
Ahlgren is the first American to be convicted of tax crimes solely related to cryptocurrency sales. He admitted to underreporting capital gains when he sold $3.7 million worth of Bitcoin in 2017, resulting in tax losses. Ahlgren pleaded guilty on September 12 last year and was sentenced on December 12. Prosecutors said he used part of the proceeds to buy a property in Park City, Utah. In 2020, Ahlgren transferred at least 1,287 bitcoins, which are currently worth more than $124 million, through a "mixing" service.
Prosecutors pointed out that Ahlgren's property "cannot be seized by ordinary physical means," so they asked the court to order him to hand over the private keys to prevent the assets from being transferred. Judge Robert Pitman ruled that Ahlgren could not transfer or sell any property without court approval, but could use it for "normal monthly living expenses."
