- Prison Sentence for Three People Who Stole Their Friend’s Bitcoin!
- According to the report, these ‘unfriendly’ friends perpetrated the theft using the recovery code.
Three people have been sentenced to prison for stealing their friend’s 7 Bitcoins, which are worth about $287,500. This was reported by Vietnam’s local news agency, VN Express.
The report stated that one 32-year-old Pham Van Thuan and another 33-year-old Nguyen Thai Son became friends with a man named Trieu in 2018.
Van Thuan, who was suffering from economic difficulties, went to Trieu’s house in April 2022 while looking for a job.
While at Trieu’s house, Van Thuan borrowed a laptop bag from Trieu and found a note inside the bag with the words ‘Trust Wallet Recovery’ written on it.
He used the recovery password written in the note to log into Trust Wallet and found out that Trieu had 7 BTC.
Van Thuan subsequently returned the bag and left Trieu’s house. After Thuan left, he re-entered Trieu’s account and transferred the Bitcoins to his own account.
Trieu realized that his BTCs were stolen and called Thuan repeatedly, believing that Thuan might have done this. However, Trieu could not reach out to Thuan but reported the Bitcoin theft to the police.
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Thuan later asked his friend Nguyen Thai Son for help to hide. Thai Son helped Thuan rent a hotel room to hide from Trieu. Thai Son called his own friend named Cong Dung and asked him to help Thuan.
Thai Son and Cong Dung demanded 4.3 Bitcoins in return for this help, which Thuan accepted.
While Son and Dung spent all the Bitcoins they received, Thuan called Trieu on May 21 to make an arrangement regarding the Bitcoins.
Trieu, who was followed by the police, caught and arrested Thuan afterwards.
Since Vietnam’s current laws do not recognize Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as legal currencies and means of payment in Vietnam, Thuan was sentenced to 13 years in prison for “using computer networks, telecommunications networks, and electronic means to commit acts of property appropriation.”
