Florida Man Loses $354M Bitcoin Fortune After Lying to Feds; Hard Drive Destroyed
A Florida man’s lengthy battle to get well what he claimed was a $354 million Bitcoin fortune has led to failure after a federal appeals courtroom dominated that he waited too lengthy to come ahead and that the exhausting drive holding his alleged crypto keys had already been destroyed.
In a call published Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rejected the attraction of Michael Prime, who was in search of the return of an orange exterior exhausting drive seized throughout his 2019 arrest for counterfeiting and identification theft.
The courtroom upheld a decrease courtroom’s ruling that Prime’s request got here years too late and that his earlier denials of proudly owning any important quantity of Bitcoin made restoration not possible.
“For years, Prime denied that he had a lot Bitcoin in any respect,” the panel of judges wrote. “Only later did he declare to be a Bitcoin tycoon.”
‘Too Late to Claim’: Court Denies Florida Man’s Effort to Retrieve Lost Bitcoin
Prime was arrested in 2019 after police found pretend bank cards, counterfeit driver’s licenses, and firearms at his house in Hillsborough County.
Investigators additionally seized a number of digital gadgets, together with the exhausting drive that may later grow to be the main target of his authorized battle.
At the time, Prime admitted to accepting Bitcoin as fee for promoting counterfeit objects on-line however stated he had already spent most of his crypto holdings.
Federal brokers tried to find any cryptocurrency linked to Prime, conducting a number of searches in 2018 and 2019.
Those efforts failed to uncover any wallets or restoration keys. Based on Prime’s personal statements that he owned “little or no Bitcoin,” authorities ultimately destroyed the seized storage gadgets in accordance with commonplace procedures.
Prime was sentenced in 2020 to greater than 5 years in jail for access-device fraud, aggravated identification theft, and unlawful firearm possession.
After his launch in 2022, he filed a movement beneath Rule 41(g) to get well the exhausting drive, claiming it contained cryptographic keys to roughly 3,443 Bitcoin, value over $345 million at present costs.
The district courtroom denied the movement, ruling that the property had been “correctly destroyed” and that Prime’s delay had prejudiced the federal government. The Eleventh Circuit agreed, citing “laches,” an equitable doctrine barring claims filed after unreasonable delay.
The judges wrote that awarding compensation “even when the Bitcoin existed” could be inequitable.
Where Does Lost Bitcoin Go, and Who Really Owns What’s Left?
Bitcoin itself is just not saved on bodily gadgets however exists on the blockchain, a shared public ledger. Hard drives and wallets solely retailer the private keys wanted to entry or transfer the Bitcoin.
Without these keys or a backup seed phrase, the cash stay completely inaccessible. “Lost cash solely make everybody else’s cash value barely extra,” Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto wrote in 2010.
According to blockchain analytics companies, misplaced Bitcoin is a rising phenomenon. A 2025 report by River Financial estimates that between 2.3 million and 4 million BTC, roughly 11% to 18% of the full provide, are completely misplaced.
Around 3.8 million of these cash belong to wallets which were inactive for over a decade.
With a circulating provide of slightly below 20 million BTC out of a most of 21 million, analysts recommend the efficient usable provide could also be nearer to 16–17.5 million BTC.
This shortage contributes to Bitcoin’s deflationary character. Experts say this has a refined however lasting impact on Bitcoin’s worth, tightening provide over time.
Also, some analysts describe these “zombie wallets” as a facet impact of Bitcoin’s decentralized design quite than a flaw within the system.
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