US authorities are demanding $5.2 million worth of Bitcoin and the confiscation of a sports car from a #hacker as part of a case involving the theft of assets from companies in Silicon Valley. A federal court in San Francisco has issued a preliminary ruling for the confiscation of cryptocurrencies and a 2017 BMW i8 from the hacker known as "winblo." According to the US Department of Justice, between 2016 and 2018, Ahmad Vagaaf Hared, also known as winblo, along with two accomplices, hacked into the wallets of leaders of undisclosed cryptocurrency projects using SIM card swapping. The hackers also made repeated calls to some of the victims for extortion purposes. Hared, who was 18 at the time when the scheme began, and one of his accomplices were arrested in 2018 on charges of computer fraud, personal data theft, and extortion. A verdict in this case has not been reached yet.

Currently, authorities are seeking to seize 119.8 #BTC (valued at $5.2 million at the time of the ruling) and 93,420 #XLM (worth $11,770) from Hared, as well as the transfer of his 2017 BMW i8 to the government, with an approximate value of $150,000 at the time of purchase.

This case bears similarities to another incident where Bart Stephens, co-founder and managing partner of cryptocurrency fund Blockchain Capital, filed a lawsuit against an anonymous hacker who stole $6.3 million in various digital assets through SIM card swapping.$BTC