Bitcoin investor ordered to surrender cryptocurrency keys in landmark tax case

A Texas federal judge has ordered Frank Richard Ahlgren III and any associates to surrender all public and private keys, accounts, and cryptocurrency access codes.

A Texas-based early Bitcoin investor has been ordered to surrender cryptocurrency and private wallet keys along with other access codes under an injunction after being convicted in December to two years in prison for tax fraud.

Frank Richard Ahlgren III, who falsely reported capital gains on over $3.7 million in Bitcoin sales from 2017 to 2019, owes the U.S. government approximately $1.1 million in restitution.

On January 6, Federal Court Judge Austin Robert Pitman ordered Ahlgren and any family members, friends, or representatives to identify and provide any physical devices used to store his cryptocurrency, along with any public keys, private keys, seed phrases, or password phrases.