Bitcoin network-fork froze coins of Russian criminalsOn February 12, a court in the U.S. state of Illinois ordered the blocking of cryptocurrency belonging to Russian criminals.
The court considered a lawsuit filed by blockchain developers JuratBTC against criminals acting independently or in the ranks of criminal groups. Among the defendants were employees of Hydra, a darknet market that was shut down last year, members of CHATEX, a Russian digital asset extortion ring, and hacker Anton Andreev, who allegedly interfered in the U.S. election.
Judge Virginia Kendall granted JuratBTC's motion and ordered the freezing of Jurat coins (JTC), which are stored on several dozen wallets belonging to the criminals. Kendall did not fine the defendants, admitting that they are located in states that are "hostile to the United States," so it is unlikely that the perpetrators will be able to recover money.
As a fork, the JuratBTC blockchain copied all of the data stored on the bitcoin network as of January 8, 2022. Accordingly, all BTC owners automatically received JTC coins. It was because of this that the attackers were in possession of the digital assets blocked by court order.
