In Germany, a man who allegedly acquired cryptocurrency worth approximately $2.9 million (€2.5 million) will not face criminal prosecution.
The legal matter, reviewed by Braunschweig’s Higher Regional Court, involved the movement of 25 million digital coins. The individual in question had assisted the accuser in establishing a digital wallet for a new blockchain project.
During this assistance, it’s alleged he secretly obtained the wallet’s 24-word recovery key. This allowed him to transfer the coins to two separate wallets, effectively removing them from the original owner’s control.
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However, German legal definitions of theft are limited to tangible objects. The court decided that because cryptocurrency exists only digitally, it doesn’t fulfill the requirements of “property” as defined by Section 242 of the German Criminal Code.
The court also stated that the charge of “computer fraud” was invalid because there was no definitive evidence of unauthorized modification of data for personal enrichment. Due to the decentralized nature of blockchain transactions, proving the transfers were conducted with malicious intent was impossible.
A charge of evidence tampering was likewise rejected. The justices reasoned that identifying the individual responsible for a transaction on a public blockchain is exceedingly complex.
A similar issue arose concerning the “data alteration” claim. While the court acknowledged that data was indeed altered, they stipulated that the blockchain network itself performed the modification.
Recently, John Woeltz and William Duplessie secured release on $1 million bail each following accusations of kidnapping and assaulting an Italian national inside a Manhattan residence. Interested in learning more? Get the full details here.
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