An Australian police officer is accused of stealing 81,616 bitcoins from a crypto wallet seized from a drug dealer, with evidence linking the theft to a former police officer causing the case to be reopened, while the defendant's lawyer vows to fight the charges.
An Australian police officer recently appeared in a Melbourne court where he faced charges of stealing 81,616 bitcoins from a crypto wallet seized from drug traffickers.
New Tracking Tool Unmasks Identity of BTC Thieves
After initially blaming drug dealers, the Australian Federal Police later reopened the case after an expert found evidence linking the theft to a former police officer. The accused police officer's lawyer has vowed to fight all charges against his client. Recently, an Australian police officer appeared in a Melbourne Court, facing charges of stealing 81,616 bitcoins (BTC) from a cryptocurrency wallet.
This wallet had been confiscated from a drug trafficking ring. According to reports, the officer, William Wheatley, is alleged to have committed the offense in January 2019, before Wheatley's indictment, Australian authorities initially thought that an accomplice of drug traffickers was responsible for the theft.
However, the case was reopened in 2021 after new tracking tools used by the police showed that the theft was carried out by a member of the Australian Federal Police As per News.Com.au's report, the theft was first discovered on February 14, 2019, by a Detective Force Sergeant Cyber Crime, Deon Achtypis. The report said the theft may have occurred about four days after the initial seizure of the wallet.
Stolen Funds Reportedly Transferred to Wheatly Accounts
However, the detective still managed to link the relevant IP address to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) headquarters in Melbourne. This finding led Achtypis to consider the possibility that an AFP member was responsible for the theft.
"I formed the opinion that a member of the police force may have been involved in the cryptocurrency movement," Detective Sgt said in a statement.
Initially, the BTC, which was worth around $450,000 at the time, was then transferred to two other wallets. Achtypis reportedly lost track of the funds' movements after that, with the AFP enlisting the services of Craig Gillespie, a cryptocurrency investigator, to track down the stolen BTC.
Meanwhile, Wheatley's attorney has labeled the case against his client as "circumstantial." He has vowed to fight all accusations leveled against his client.
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