A cybercrime police officer will face charges of stealing virtual currency assets seized during a drug trafficking investigation.
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Australian Federal Police officer William Wheatley appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday, pleading not guilty to using information obtained in his role as a public servant for his own benefit, theft and dealing with the proceeds of crime. did.
Two further charges of dishonest acquisition of property and dealing with the proceeds of crime were struck out by Judge Malcolm Thomas during a four-day trial.
Australian National Anti-Corruption Commission prosecutors allege Mr Wheatley stole 81.616 bitcoins, which were identified after a raid on a Hoppers Crossing home in January 2019.
The raid was carried out as part of Operation Viridian, a joint AFP and Victoria Police investigation into drug trafficking through the postal service.
Wheatley is currently accused of stealing 81.6 bitcoins worth $6.3 million.Photo: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique Azcuy
Detectives found a Trezor-branded hardware cryptocurrency wallet along with a large amount of “steroidal” substances on the premises.
The court heard it took investigators three weeks to obtain magistrate approval to access the wallet, but it was found empty on February 14, just four days after the raid. It was announced.
A device containing a “seed phrase” (a randomly assigned string of words) that allows anyone to access the digital wallet was also discovered at the scene.
Giving evidence, Detective Sergeant Deon Aktipis of the Cybercrime Unit said investigators initially believed that after the investigation, members of the criminal organization transferred Bitcoin worth around $450,000 at the time.
The same amount of Bitcoin is currently worth more than $6.3 million.
“It was used as an anonymized training aid to highlight the unique risks that cryptocurrencies pose to law enforcement,” he said.
However, Detective Aktipis reinvestigated the case in 2021, two years after Victoria Police introduced new cryptocurrency tracking tools.
Wheatley denied responsibility for the alleged cryptocurrency theft.Photo: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique Azcuy
The currency was traced to a cryptocurrency exchange called Binance, and the cybercrime unit discovered that one of the IP addresses used to access the stolen coins was linked to AFP headquarters at the time.
“We could not think of any legitimate business reason for an IP address associated with AFP to be displayed,” Detective Archipis said.
“I have formed the opinion that law enforcement personnel may be involved in the movement of virtual currency.”
An internal investigation has been launched by the Australian Law Enforcement Integrity Commission into five cybercriminals who were working on February 8, the day an IP address associated with AFP headquarters was used in connection with the stolen cryptocurrency. The focus was on criminal investigators.
The court was told that Mr Wheatley became the focus of the investigation after another IP address connected to his Richmond home was linked to him and officers through a woman named Ashley Tell.
Wales-based cryptocurrency investigator Craig Gillespie told the court that some of the transactions were traced to have been withdrawn from Mr Wheatley's bank account between 2019 and September 2022. said.
He declined to comment on the allegations outside of court. Photo: NCA NewsWire/Liam Beattie.
Jesse White, an AFP employee investigated as part of the corruption probe, told the court that he contacted Mr Wheatley when the cryptocurrency wallet was discovered, and that he was an “expert” in cryptocurrencies. Stated.
“Have you seen this? Probably about cryptocurrency,” he wrote in a text message to an off-duty officer at the time.
The suspended police officer was set to stand trial in the county court after Judge Thomas ruled that the evidence was likely to support guilt.
His lawyer Luke Barker told the court the case against his client was “circumstantial” and he intended to contest his client's alleged actions.
He estimated the trial could last up to three months.
Mr Wheatley declined to comment on the out-of-court allegations and is scheduled to next appear in county court in March.
