A judge in San Fransisco has charged a supposed hacker with a security deposit of $ 750,000 in cryptocurrency. It would be the first time that a US court would accept digital currency.
Italian Martin Marsich (25) was arrested on 8 August at San Francisco airport while on his way to Serbia. He had both an Italian and Serbian passport with him and his last known house is in the Italian city of Udine. He is accused of having committed a gigantic hack at the popular computer company Electronic Arts (EA) in Bay Are. This enabled him to report to the accounts of 25,000 customers who played the football video game FIFA, according to an American tech blog .
According to the prosecutors, he used that data to obtain in-game currency – credit with which players can buy extras in the game. From there he reportedly sold the accounts on websites of black markets. Electronic Arts claims that the actions of Marsich cost them $ 324,000.
Paying in crypto will probably not be the norm yet. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency are still pretty turbulent. A bail obligation on the one day can not mean anything the next day if the value crashes.
Marsich is expected to know tomorrow whether he is going to pay in cryptocurrency. He has a five-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $ 250,000.