South Korea Prosecutors Lose 48 Million USD in Seized Bitcoin

South Korea's Gwangju District Prosecutors Office announced on Thursday that approximately 70 billion won, or about 48 million U.S. dollars, worth of seized Bitcoin has gone missing from its custody following a suspected phishing attack. The loss was uncovered during a routine inspection of confiscated digital assets, prompting an internal investigation into how the breach occurred.

The Bitcoin had been confiscated as part of an illegal gambling probe, stored on portable USB drives as part of standard asset management procedures. Officials detected the discrepancy while verifying access credentials and passwords kept on these removable devices. A prosecution official explained that the incident likely stemmed from an employee inadvertently accessing a fraudulent website during the inspection process. "We know that something happened after accidentally accessing a so-called fake scam site during the regular inspection of confiscated Bitcoin," the official stated, adding that the compromised credentials allowed unauthorized parties to drain the wallet.

Authorities have confirmed the breach exposed vulnerabilities in their handling of digital assets but declined to provide further...