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Queensland man arrested on charges including Bitcoin theft

More than $AU110k of crypto-currency 'in his possession'

Back in March, a man from the Queensland town of Kingaroy identified by News Limited as Shane Duffy was charged for breaching the systems of Riot Networks.Those attacks included copying files and briefly hijacking the company's Twitter account, and in April, a Maryborough magistrate confirmed bail conditions that forbade him from all access to computers.

Today, Queensland Police issued a statement that a 21-year-old Kingaroy man has been arrested in Hervey Bay and charged with a bail offence, as well as a "tainted property" offence involving $AU110,000 worth of the crypto-currency Bitcoin.

The police statement observes that the man arrested today was charged in March over “hacking and fraud offences he committed against the [unnamed] US-based online gaming company’s computer network”.

“Yesterday, members of the Cyber and Identity Crime Group, part of the Fraud and Cyber Crime Group with the assistance of Maryborough Police located the man at a Hervey Bay address,” the statement reads.

The police allege that the man was in possession of the Bitcoin at the time of the arrest. [El Reg notes that since Bitcoin lacks a physical manifestation, we presume that he was in possession of a file, presumably on a computer or a disk, that contained a stolen Bitcoin wallet].

Today's charges include tainted property and breach-of-bail offences, and the police say they're treating the Bitcoin as proceeds of crime. The Hervey Bay raid was carried out by members of the Queensland Police Cyber and Identity Crime Group.

The latest police report doesn't name Shane Duffy as the man facing the new charges, meaning we'll have to wait until the new arrestee turns up in Hervey Bay Magistrates Court on July 24 to confirm or disprove a link between the events. ®

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