The police department of Victoria, Australia, made its first successful crypto seizure worth $142,679 following recent amendments to the law that allow police officers to gain control of digital assets.
The Victoria Police released its 2023–2024 annual report on Oct. 31, highlighting a recent authorization of “new powers” following the addition of “SECT 92A Seizure of digital asset under search warrant” to the Confiscation Act 1997.
Since Aug. 1, 2023, the change in law has empowered police officers in Victoria to confiscate cryptocurrencies in the possession of criminals through a search warrant.
Finding seed phrases during a drug bust
During a major drug trafficking investigation, Victoria Police’s Cryptocurrency Operations team applied for a search warrant after discovering several cryptocurrency recovery phrases in seized documents.
Recovery or seed phrases are a secret string of words linked to specific crypto wallets, which can be used to recover and access their crypto assets.
Check out Cointelegraph’s guide to learn how to recover a crypto wallet with or without a seed phrase.
Noting the authority’s first successful cryptocurrency seizure since the changes to the legislation, the report said:
“Victoria Police detectives were able to access six wallets and seize $142,679.10 worth of various cryptocurrencies.”
New powers to simplify cryptocurrency seizures
The new law allows four ways for police officers to seize crypto assets under a search warrant: accessing storage devices and computers, interfering with the storage or communication devices, altering or transferring the crypto assets and performing transactions that lead to gaining exclusive control of the asset.
The Victoria police are allowed to seize any property that either contains cryptocurrencies or can help gain access to them, such as hardware wallets.
In September, local reports claimed that Australian regulators are preparing a new guidance to require cryptocurrency exchanges to obtain financial services licenses.
According to Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) commissioner Alan Kirkland, the new requirements are necessary because the regulator considers that the Corporations Act captures most major crypto assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
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