The Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) is holding seized cryptocurrency worth almost €350 million that is it is unable to access.
The bitcoin virtual currency, which is held in 12 wallets, cannot be opened or cashed in more than five years after it was first seized from a drug dealer.
It was uncovered by the Garda after an operation targeting Clifton Collins and seized in 2019 when valued at €53 million. In the time the bureau has effectively been sitting on the asset, hoping advances in technology will lead to it being unlocked, it has soared in value to €345 million.
Collins – a 53-year-old former beekeeper – grew cannabis crops in rented houses and sold the harvested drug to criminals, including in his native Crumlin.
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Collins invested some of the proceeds of his drugs business in bitcoin, when it was worth only a fraction of its current value, in 2011 and 2012. As the virtual currency increased in value, Collins decided it would be safer to disperse his growing fortune across multiple virtual wallets that hold the cryptocurrency. He created 12 wallets for storing the bitcoin and recorded the codes, or digital keys, for each in a document.
Collins then hid the document in a fishing rod case at one of his rented properties, in Co Galway. In interviews with gardaí he claimed he never saw the case again after a break-in at his home. However, a clear-out of the property after his arrest may also have resulted in the loss of the document.
The case of Collins is just one of a growing number around the world involving people losing digital keys to the wallets holding their bitcoin, thus being locked out of their fortunes.
In 2017, Collins was caught drug dealing by chance after years of operating under the radar. Gardaí on a routine patrol spotted a car parked at Military Road near Sally Gap in Co Wicklow in the early hours of the morning and went to check on it. Cannabis herb valued at €2,000 was found in the car, driven by Collins.
A subsequent investigation discovered he had been using three rented houses – in Galway, Meath and Longford – to grow cannabis. In the property in Galway, gardaí discovered a crop valued at €400,000 and Collins was later jailed for five years.
In late 2020, Collins surrendered assets worth €1.2 million to the State as they were the proceeds of crime. They included €1 million in bitcoin, which he had the key codes for, as well as a two-seater Gyro aircraft, a camper van and a fishing boat.
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee published Cab’s annual report for 2023 on Tuesday. It revealed some €8.6 million had been returned to the exchequer, arising from multiple cases, by Cab in 2023, the largest sum for 15 years.
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