South Korean Police Arrest Two Suspects Accused of Stealing 22 Seized Bitcoins

Odaily News According to The Block, the Gyeonggi Northern Police Agency in South Korea arrested two suspects on February 25, 2026, for allegedly stealing 22 bitcoins from the evidence vault of the Gangnam Police Station. These bitcoins were originally seized in November 2021 during the investigation of the "A Coin Foundation" hacking case. The investigation revealed that because the police at the time did not store the assets in an officially supervised hardware wallet but instead used a cold wallet provided by the foundation, the suspects were able to illegally transfer the assets via the information and communication network using the seed phrase. Currently, these bitcoins, valued at approximately $1.5 million, have not been recovered. Furthermore, the former police officer in charge of the case was sentenced to 18 months in prison in August 2024 for accepting bribes from the foundation.