The co-founder of an IT company in France has recently been accused of stealing Bitcoin worth 1.1 million euros.
The company, which started in 2013, had a conflict between leadership executives that resulted in a decision to oust the company’s chief executive. Although the exec-turned-businessman continued to seek a new position outside of France, he allegedly started formulating plans to take revenge on the IT company and turned into a hacker.
Investigators involved in the situation detailed that between December 2018 and January 2019, he was able to grab 182 Bitcoins which would be equivalent to $1.2 million dollars or almost 1.1 million euros. The amount was transacted from the company accounts and their Bitcoin holdings were compromised. Authorities believe that the transaction was conducted easily by the accused due to already having a thorough understanding of the company’s system and its workings.
Authorities were soon able to track the wallet address of the person who stole the Bitcoin haul and linked it to the digital wallet of its owner. Upon returning to France, the accused entrepreneur was detained in the Calvados Department a week ago under the watch of law enforcement agents.
Suspect Fully Admits to Stealing Bitcoin
Despite taking extensive measures, France is not new to a string of petty attacks by the ex-officers in the companies that were asked to leave. In this case, the IT startup met a steady growth after its launch and was able to gain considerable success before it reached a point of conflict between the original founders which resulted in the departure of the accused executive.
Later, the man arrested admitted to the authorities investigating the case that the crime was an act of aggression against the company that removed him from his position. He was arraigned under several different charges including theft, money laundering and illegally accessing the automatic data processing system of his former company.
As the trial continues, the local judge presiding the case has put the accused under travel restrictions, meaning that the man will not be allowed to leave the country for the time being. The information regarding their employment out of France is still unknown.
The prosecutors involved in the case have been fighting for the former entrepreneur to receive a detention instead of travel restrictions. No new updates have been made available for the public yet regarding the proceedings of the case but since the man admitted to the charges, it is unlikely that he’ll walk free.
