If You Held Crypto on CoinGather in 2017 the US Government Wants to Give it Back

Published at: May 3, 2020

The United States Department of Justice is seeking the owners of crypto funds that were held by CoinGather — a small crypto exchange that was seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, or FBI, in March 2018.

The seizure came months after the exchange had abruptly ceased operating during November 2017, prompting rumors to circulate that the platform had conducted an exit scam. 

US Gov seeks victims of CoinGather scam

The U.S. government is looking for individuals who may have a claim to the crypto holdings of the defunct CoinGather exchange.

A warrant shows that the cryptocurrencies currently reside on the Dell PowerEdge Server, serial number JNFHSW1. Neither the value of the crypto held on the server nor the sum that the Justice Department is willing to forfeit has been disclosed.

Individuals seeking to claim cryptocurrencies held on the exchange’s former server have 35 days to contact the Eastern District of Michigan Justice Department.

The relevant parties are instructed to detail their name, address, and date of birth, and detail their CoinGather holdings in the form of signed documentation under penalty of perjury.

CoinGather ceases operating amid all-time highs

Estimated to represent $100,000 in daily trade at the time of the platform’s abrupt end to operations in November 2017, CoinGather was relatively small when it ceased trading.

Posts to Reddit and Bitcointalk during late-2017 show an immediately skeptical response to CoinGather’s silence from the crypto community amid what were then all-time highs of nearly $10,000.

After impacted users claimed to identify the website owner as an individual living in Ohio, they reached out to the FBI at the start of 2018. 

On March 15, 2018, the FBI seized CoinGather.com after obtaining a wallet for a probable cause finding.

Tags
Blockchain
United States
Fbi
Department Of Justice
Related Posts
Digital intelligence must overcome challenges to solving crypto crimes
While the value of cryptocurrencies has varied wildly in the last year, this has not diminished crypto’s attractiveness to criminals. Many of them are moving their illegal activities underground and outside the view of law enforcement. Because of the public nature of most blockchains, however, this rapid movement shouldn’t be a major concern to law enforcement agencies. With the right tools and training, following the proceeds of crypto-enabled crime is actually not as difficult as it may seem. However, intelligence agencies must have a cryptocurrency investigation plan that includes the right tools to lawfully collect digital evidence and the properly …
Technology / Aug. 20, 2021
Declaring a crackdown? What to make of the DoJ crypto framework release
The United States Attorney General’s Cyber-Digital Task Force recently unveiled the result of its months-long effort to evaluate emerging cryptocurrency-related threats and articulate law enforcement strategies for countering them. The resulting guidance leaves the reader with an impression that its authors have a sound understanding of how the focal asset class works as well as a certain fixation on the ways it can be misused, as some observers contend. In the highly charged atmosphere of the final weeks before the presidential election, with high-profile enforcement actions against the people behind crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX and the U.S. government’s sweeping anti-monopoly …
Blockchain / Nov. 1, 2020
Cybercrime task force monitoring the global digital financial system
The United States faces a growing threat of transnational cybercrime, particularly against its financial system. In what may be the largest prosecution of its kind in U.S. history, the U.S. Department of Justice has charged Texas tech billionaire Bob Brockman in a 39-count indictment with evading $2 billion in taxes. The businessman used encrypted devices and code words to conceal his wire fraud, tax fraud and money laundering within a network of offshore entities and bank accounts. As the CEO of Reynolds and Reynolds Co., Brockman contributed 6.4% to the United States’ current annual deficit of $3.1 trillion — more …
Technology / Oct. 24, 2020
US authorities go after 280 crypto accounts allegedly tied to North Korea
"The Justice Department today filed a civil forfeiture complaint detailing two hacks of virtual currency exchanges by North Korean actors," said an Aug. 27 statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, or DoJ. "These actors stole millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency and ultimately laundered the funds through Chinese over-the-counter (OTC) cryptocurrency traders." The hackers allegedly utilized 280 different digital asset accounts. March 2020 saw details of a 2019 legal case surface, in which two Chinese nationals allegedly hijacked piles of crypto assets totaling $250 million. This ordeal appears to be connected with the present day news, the DoJ statement …
Blockchain / Aug. 27, 2020
FBI is launching team to address crypto exploitation: US Deputy Attorney General
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco has announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be increasing efforts to address enforcement in the digital asset space with the formation of a new team. Speaking at the Munich Cyber Security Conference on Thursday, Monaco said the FBI was creating a “specialized team dedicated to cryptocurrency” called the Virtual Asset Exploitation Unit. The unit will include crypto experts and as well have the means for blockchain analysis that may eventually be used to track and seize illicit funds. The formation of the FBI team comes more than four months after Monaco announced …
Regulation / Feb. 17, 2022