THE MISSING CRYPTOJACK
COPS DRAW A BLANK IN HUNT FOR FUNDS
Up to £1million stolen in Scotland’s first cryptojacking will probably never be recovered, detectives have admitted.
Police Scotland last week secured a conviction for reset against Lanarkshire man John Ross Rennie after a violent robbery three years ago.
As much as £ 1million of bitcoin – a type of online currency – was stolen during the raid of a home in Blantyre and transferred to Rennie’s account.
Two men and a woman were attacked by three masked intruders who demanded one of the victims, who can’t be named for legal reasons, transfer the virtual currency.
The thugs then battered the woman over the head with a personalised Toblerone.
Mont h s a f t er the i nc i d e n t , police were able to link the stolen currency to 29-year- old delivery dr iver Rennie but by the time they accessed his accounts, the funds had been moved. Rennie claimed he was not involved in the robbery and officers have never been able to f ind the three men who committed the attack.
Detective Inspector Craig Potter said: “This case is the first movement of funds which has been proven in court.
“We followed a long trail where we got to an account and then had to make international inquiries that led us to Rennie.
“Once we had bui lt up enough of a picture of what happened, we were able to get search warrants.
“When we got his mobile phone we found cryptocurrency wallet software which showed he was the direct recipient of the cryptocurrency.
“We’ve had criminal seizures of cryptocurrency in Scotland before – one was seized abroad and in the other case officers