Judges side with FBI after inmate loses access to 9,400 BTC

A US appeals court has ruled that the FBI cannot be held responsible for wiping a hard drive containing over 9,400 BTC (worth about $345 million). The claimant, a convicted fraudster, alleged that federal agents accidentally erased his crypto holdings during an investigation.

Source Cointelegraph

Judges concluded that the government had no prior knowledge of the Bitcoin wallet, as the inmate failed to disclose it during mandatory financial statements. At the time, he claimed to own only $1,500 in BTC, leading the FBI to treat the drive as non-valuable.

The court stated that the government cannot be blamed for destroying assets it wasn’t informed about. The decision leaves the former inmate without compensation for what could have been one of the largest lost Bitcoin fortunes ever.