Employees of Sony in Japan stole 154 million U.S. dollars of public funds and exchanged them for Bitcoin: worth 180 million U.S. dollars! FBI recovery

The U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday that it had taken action to return $154 million stolen by a Japanese employee at a Sony subsidiary who converted the U.S. dollars into Bitcoin.

According to a civil forfeiture lawsuit filed in San Diego, California on Monday, Rei Ishii, an employee of Sony Life Insurance in Tokyo, stole $154 million in funds in May this year when the company tried to transfer funds between its accounts. The money was transferred to his account in a California bank, and the money was later converted into 3,879 bitcoins, which are now worth more than 180 million U.S. dollars.

These funds were seized on December 1. With the assistance of Sony, Citibank and Japanese law enforcement agencies, FBI investigators obtained the private key (equivalent to a password) required to access Ishii’s Bitcoin address. .

The U.S. Department of Justice stated: “All stolen bitcoins that can be traced have been recovered and fully preserved. Ishii has been criminally charged in Japan.” “Our purpose is to return the stolen money to the victims of this bold theft. Well, today’s actions will help us do this."