Crime, Cryptocurrencies, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation

When 30-year-old Deniss Einasto was arrested in spring of this year, a vast database containing usernames and passwords, which originated from five different cryptocurrency and webhosting environments, was found on his computer. The material was found in terabytes.

Public prosecutor Piret Paukstys said that the suspect had been taking advantage of this data for crimes for the last five years already. The prosecutor's office is still unable to say how Einasto came upon this kind of data. "This has not yet been determined during the proceedings," Paukstys told.

The fact is that the aforementioned information made the man into a mlnaire. According to the version of the prosecutor's office, the man accessed the stolen accounts and transferred bitcoins from there onto his own account. "According to the accusation, Einasto earned over 3 mln euros in income this way," Paukstys said.

As the matter involves cryptocurrency, it is difficult to calculate the actual sum of the criminal proceeds. "Calculation lies in the fact that during the period of time described above, the actual income of the accused was over 3 mln euros greater than his official income. The fluctuation of the value of cryptocurrency impacts the calculation to the extent that the value of cryptocurrency has been calculated during the time of the crimes," the public prosecutor said. For example, during the height of the bitcoin exchange rate, the value of the stolen assets would have amounted to 30 mln euros.

The prosecutor's office determined that Einasto, an avid poker player, gambled most of the criminal proceeds in casinos, while a smaller portion -- approximately 300,000 euros -- was laundered, with the accused transferring the money to his father's accounts, from where the latter returned the sums to his son in cash. Einasto transferred part of the money as operating loans to companies owned by him.

According to the version of the prosecutor's office, Einasto used other persons' bank accounts, which were under his control, for taking out the money. For that, he employed the help of acquaintances who were willing to take out the money from the accounts and take it to the accused in cash. At the request of the prosecutor's office, various cryptocurrencies and one apartment in Tartu have been seized. The investigation has been made more difficult by the circumstance that the victims of the crimes are located across the world and are nameless.