Tokyo Court Orders Stolen NEM from Coincheck to be Confiscated

More than two years since Coincheck Inc. was hacked, the Tokyo District Court has issued the first-ever cryptocurrency seizure for Japan, according to numerous media reports including the Japan Times.

According to reports, the Court has issued a protective order in anticipation of the confiscation of cryptocurrency assets which are believed to have been stolen from the Tokyo based cryptocurrency exchange back in 2018.

Specifically, $46,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) relating to the Coincheck hack has been expropriated. Another media outlet, Kyodo reported that police have already seized the bitcoin which was held by Takayoshi Doi, a doctor from Hokkaido, and an executive from the Osaka Prefecture.

Doi had already been arrested by authorities back in March for allegedly obtaining NEM even though he knew it was part of the stolen funds from Coincheck. He has since been indicted to protect the assets for future confiscation. Around ¥58 million worth of NEM was taken from the crypto exchange during the hack.

As Finance Magnates reported at the time, at the beginning of 2018, Coincheck suffered a breach which saw 500 million NEM tokens stolen from the Tokyo-based exchange, which was worth around $530 million.

According to unnamed sources, Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department requested that the district court issue the protective order. On the 30th of March, the court accepted the request, sources say.

If Doi is found to be guilty, the NEM he holds, including that which is owned under the name of his company in domestic cryptocurrency exchanges, will be confiscated.

Monex Group acquired struggling Coincheck

As Finance Magnates reported, Coincheck’s hack in January of 2018 left the exchange severely wounded. Since then, the exchange has been acquired by the Monex Group and has gradually recommenced its services and expanded its existing offering.

In June of this year, Coincheck suffered another data breach. This led to unauthorised third parties accessing the platform’s domain registration service.