# BlueLeaks on Bitcoin



## Kosher Dill (Jul 20, 2020)

I came across some Bitcoin-related material in the BlueLeaks files, and I thought I'd write up a little something on it for anyone interested.
(Our A&N thread on it here: https://kiwifarms.net/threads/10-years-of-fbi-and-police-data-269gb-now-at-your-fingertips.71988 )

If you go into the Alabama Fusion Center subdirectory (alabamafusioncenter\files\DDF) you'll find some information on Bitcoin investigations.

*"Seizure Warrant - Bitcoin-1"*
This is a 2014 case from West Texas where the IRS requests and receives permission to "seize" a Bitcoin wallet alleged to belong to a 24-year-old marijuana dealer, containing 164.5 BTC.
The outline of the case is roughly like this: the government was going after one Joshua Gatewood, who was alleged to be dealing large quantities of marijuana.
They started by charging two accomplices and getting them to flip, did the usual sort of detective work, and raided Gatewood's house, seizing marijuana, cash, and a USB thumb drive.
Examining the thumb drive, they found bitcoin wallets on there and got the transaction history. They also apparently imaged his phone at some point and got messages relating to localbitcoins.com.
From there, they just established that Gatewood had no other plausible source of income, meaning the BTC must have been bought with drug money, and used the US' notorious civil asset forfeiture laws to obtain this seizure warrant.

*"Voluntary Surrender and Waiver of Rights - Bitcoins"*
A bit of legal boilerplate from a different case in 2014 where the accused agrees to transfer 29 BTC to a government account.
You can view the transaction here


			https://www.walletexplorer.com/txid/8ad59504369bb058a06a645e82f86cfdeddb4e9c5b74bf2377ea9bbfdda64f51
		

If anyone wants to try tracing down just where confiscated crypto goes.

*"Identifying Cryptocurrencies - An Investigator's Guide"*
A little pamphlet giving the very basics on Bitcoin and how to recognize wallet IDs. Don't let any of that Dogecoin slip through the cracks!

*"A Guide For Bitcoin Investigators"*
A 114-page document from Europol which contains a pretty thorough introduction to the Bitcoin network and forensic techniques for tracing transactions and seizing wallets.

Anyway, I learned a thing or two, hopefully some of you will find it interesting as well.


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## TaimuRadiu (Jul 21, 2020)

>  164.5 BTC 

Must have been one hell of a dealer.


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## Kosher Dill (Jul 21, 2020)

TaimuRadiu said:


> >  164.5 BTC
> 
> Must have been one hell of a dealer.


At the time that was worth "only" $74000.

There's no indication of what the IRS planned to do to "seize" these bitcoins, but 2 days after the warrant was issued, the entire wallet's contents changed hands:
https://www.walletexplorer.com/txid/ecb5341646d8730b5be0041d01e7aad350ee840b48323d10ab7ddfa2379f8106


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## Wally Walbertson (Aug 2, 2020)

Nice summary


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