Alphabiz - Prosecutors Recover Stolen Bitcoin Worth 31.7 Billion Won After Phishing Incident

Photo courtesy of Yonhap News

[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] The Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office said on Wednesday that it has fully recovered more than 320 bitcoins, currently valued at approximately 31.7 billion won ($23 million), which were stolen after evidence management investigators inadvertently accessed a phishing website.

The prosecution said it identified the wallet to which the stolen bitcoins were ultimately transferred after recognizing the theft on January 16. Authorities then monitored the wallet in real time and coordinated with domestic and overseas cryptocurrency exchanges to block transactions and complete the recovery.

The Gwangju prosecutors’ office said investigations are ongoing to identify and arrest those responsible for the theft, as well as to determine whether any internal assistance was involved. To date, no suspects have been arrested or charged, including internal personnel.

The bitcoins were originally seized in connection with an illegal gambling website case and were stolen in August last year. At the time, investigators responsible for managing the seized assets reportedly accessed a phishing site while checking the quantity of the bitcoins during a handover process.

Following the incident, the prosecutors’ office conducted monthly inspections of seized assets but verified only the physical presence of the hardware wallet—similar in appearance to a USB device—without checking the actual bitcoin balance. The theft was discovered only last month, when procedures to transfer the assets to the state treasury were initiated.

The prosecutors said they are reviewing asset management procedures as part of broader efforts to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)