The National Agency for the Management of Seized Assets (ANABI) of Romania has announced that it would begin auctioning off Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), which have been seized in a fraud case. The auction was required by the ruling pronounced by the Prosecutor’s Office upon Ploiesti Court. The starting price for 0.97 ETH is 1670 Romanian Lei ($ 401) and for 0.6 BTC – 30,535 lei ($ 7347).
ANABI said in a press release, “Taking into account the nature of the moveable property put up for auction, the successful tenderer will have to inform the Agency, to proceed with the transfer, about the BTC and ETH public addresses associated to a virtual currency trading platform. The platform must belong to a legal entity that should subdue to the legislative norms of operating the state financial instruments where it is registered as legal entity. At the same time, the platform must have a “KYC – know your customer” procedure of registering users and to observe procedures and domestic and foreign standards on prevention and countering money laundering”
Anyone willing to take part in the auction will have to register on the ANABI’s online auction platform.
Forklog, a local news report stated that ANABI required the winner to provide addresses associated with the cryptocurrency exchanges that use KYC procedures and meet the requirements of the country’s financial laws and measures that combated money laundering.
Around the world, this is not the first time that the authorities seize cryptocurrency in the framework of criminal cases. In February 2020, the Latvian State Revenue Service confiscated 200 euros worth of bitcoins that were used for criminal purposes.
In 2017, Ernst and Young announced the auction of 24,518 BTC which were “confiscated as proceeds of crime” by the Australian police. In the following year, Bulgaria’s law enforcement agencies seized nearly 213,000 BTC, which were also auctioned.
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