thecoinrepublic.com
A 27-year-old Israeli man has been sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment by the district court of Israel. He has duped his friend with DASH which was $82.5 million that time. The court has charged him with a fine of five million shekels.
An Israeli man has been sentenced to imprisonment for 8 years on the charges of Cryptocurrency theft. The Be’er Sheva District court has sentenced him with the punishment and a fine of five million shekels ($1.15million approx.) and a maximum compensation of 258,000 shekels ($80,000 almost).
Afek Zard is 27 years old and has taken advantage of his friendship with the victim, identified previously as Alexei Yaromenko, who had invested in cryptocurrency. Zard stole 75,000 DASH from him which is worth an estimated 22 million Israeli Shekels ($6.8 million). The fiat equivalent dates back to the time the theft took place. The current value of the coin is twice as high.
Zard has not returned the single Dash to date. He has been convicted of theft in aggravating circumstances and other offences. The crypto thief is a resident of Eilat in Southern Israel. He had accessed his friend’s apartment and hacked into his computer and acquired the details of his digital wallet with DASH. It was selling for $82.5 per coin at the time.
During the time of the investigation, Zard denied all the accusations and did not cooperate with the Israeli police. He refused to provide them with the passwords to his personal computer and cellphone. Hence, the authorities were not able to seize the stolen digital coins.
Judge Yoel Eden in the court proceedings ruled that the defendant’s testimony was unreliable. The judge convicted Zard of all alleged thefts and charged him with computer hacking, money laundering, fraud and income tax violator.
The prosecution requested the court to sentence him for imprisonment between 12 and 15 years for crimes involving the new currency. However, his lawyer managed to convince the judge to reduce his sentence to 8 years of actual imprisonment plus probation. Zard’s lawyer, Giora Hazan, argued that although the offence was committed on a new platform, the damage itself was normal and old.