According to the Finnish customs authorities, the service sold most of the stock of confiscated bitcoins and transferred more than €45 million to the state.
Financial Director of the Finnish Customs Service (Tulli) Pekka Pylkkanen (Pekka Pylkkänen) said that most of the bitcoins previously confiscated by court order have been sold. The bulk of the virtual currency was confiscated in raids until 2018, and the authorities took a long time to decide what to do with it.
According to Pylkkanen, the customs sold crypto assets through two independent brokerage companies and was able to send more than €45 million to the state revenue. About 90 BTC and other virtual coins remained on the balance of customs, pending binding court decisions in criminal cases.
Finance Minister Annika Saarikko said that the proceeds from the sale of seized bitcoins will be used for charitable and humanitarian purposes.
Finnish Customs has been preparing to sell these 1,981 BTC confiscated from drug traffickers since early 2021.
In the same year, the Frankfurt Attorney General’s Office announced a collaboration with Bankhaus Scheich to legalize and resell confiscated cryptocurrencies. Assets worth €100 million were sold. At the same time, the US Department of Justice and the Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of California sold $56 million worth of crypto assets confiscated from the BitConnect pyramid promoter to compensate the victims.
