Two arrested after South Korean police lost $1.4M in Bitcoin
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Two people have been arrested in South Korea in relation to a case in which police lost 22 Bitcoin, now worth $1.4 million, after storing the coins in a third-party cold wallet.
The news of the loss of 22 Bitcoin (BTC) was first reported by local media in early February, with more details about the case emerging as the Gyeonggi Northern Provincial Police Agency continues its investigation.
According to a report from South Korean publication Dong-A Ilbo on Wednesday, investigators found multiple policy breaches that ultimately led to the funds being stolen.
Under the station’s protocol, which had been in place for multiple years, any seized crypto is supposed to be stored in a cold wallet under full police control.
However, after BTC was seized via voluntary submission following a hack on a local exchange in November 2021, it was stored in a cold wallet owned by a third party related to the hacking case, which also had access to the wallet’s seed phrase.
To make matters worse, the police themselves also reportedly had no idea what the seed phrase was.
Funds pulled under strange circumstances
Police are still investigating the circumstances that led to the funds being stolen.
However, the South Korean outlet stated that an official from a company with access to the seed phrase gave it over to an individual known as “Mr. Jeong” as part of a borrowing agreement between the two.
So far, two individuals have been arrested by the Gyeonggi Northern Provincial Police Agency in connection with the case.
Adding to the complexity, an investigator working on the initial case involving the hacked exchange from which the seized funds originated was sentenced in August 2025 on bribery charges. It was found that he had been offered money in exchange for giving a favorable investigation.
It took four years for authorities to discover the funds had gone missing, with the problem flagged after a nationwide audit in response to the disappearance of 320 BTC in a separate case at the Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office.
source: https://www.tradingview.com/news/cointelegraph:e4bc6b49a094b:0-two-arrested-after-south-korean-police-lost-1-4m-in-bitcoin/
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