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By Christopher F. Schuetze
Reporting from Berlin
A Gerguy programmer accused of streaming an illegal movie more than a decade ago transferred $2. 17 billion in Bitcoin to the government to repay at least some of the cash he had earned illegally, police said Tuesday. The move required the guy to use his unique Bitcoin Credentials to deliver the funds.
“This is the most extensive seizure of Bitcoins by law enforcement in the Federal Republic of Germany to date,” said Kay Anders, a spokesman for the Saxony state police. The money will remain in the authorities’ Bitcoin account until a court can figure out what to do with it, Mr. Anders added.
The man, known only as a 40-year-old German citizen, and his businesswoman wife are under investigation over allegations that they ran what was once the country’s most successful illegal video-sharing site.
At its peak, from 2008 to 2013, the movie2k. to site featured tens of thousands of videos available for download in many languages. Users from all over the world visited the site, making it one of the 25 most visited Internet sites in Germany, according to data from the time. After its government shutdown in 2013, several sites with similar names opened to fill the void.
During the five years of movie2k. to’s operation, it allowed users to illegally download about 880,000 copies of movies, the government said.
Police said the programmer took the profits from the site and invested them in Bitcoin, which ballooned to more than 40,000 euros per coin.
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