Australian Federal Police (AFP) recovered 9 million Australian dollars ($5.9 million) in cryptocurrency after breaking a coded crypto wallet backup found on a suspect’s phone. AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said the recovery was the result of “miraculous work” by a data scientist inside the force who is now known as a crypto safe cracker. The money is tied to an alleged organized crime figure who, according to AFP, sold a tech-type product to alleged criminals and stored the proceeds in crypto.
The crypto wallet was not open. The suspect refused to hand over the keys to the crypto wallet, even though Australia has a law that allows up to 10 years in prison for not giving investigators access to encrypted material. Because of that, the AFP had to find another way to reach the funds.
How Digital Forensics Linked the Coded Image to a Wallet
AFP digital forensics officers found password-protected notes on the suspect’s mobile phone. They also found an image showing random numbers and words. Commissioner Krissy Barrett said the numbers appeared in six groups. The team identified more than 50 possible combinations. AFP analysts confirmed the numbers linked to a crypto wallet or a 24-word seed phrase, not regular phone data.
Barrett said:
“We knew if we couldn’t open the crypto wallet, and if the alleged offender was sentenced, upon release he would leave prison a multi-millionaire – all from the profits of organised crime. For our members, that was not an acceptable outcome.”
The AFP needed to unlock the crypto wallet to stop the 9M AUD from returning to the suspect.
Data Scientist Removed Extra Numbers to Reveal 24 Word Seed Phrase
The AFP asked one data scientist to decode the number strings. He saw the sequences did not look computer generated. He said, “some of the number strings felt wrong and they looked like they were not computer-generated.” The scientist also said they “looked like a human had modified the sequence by adding numbers to the front of some sequences.” He tested the idea that the suspect added extra digits to block the seed phrase.
He removed the first number from each sequence. Then the strings matched a valid 24 word seed phrase. That seed phrase opened the crypto wallet with 9 million AUD ($5.9 million). Barrett said the suspect tried to create “a crypto booby prize” by changing the numbers. The AFP digital forensics team still reached the funds.
AFP Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce to Hold the Funds
The seized cryptocurrency was taken by the AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce. This unit handles digital assets, cash, and property linked to organized crime. In this case, as in other AFP crypto recoveries, the funds will be held until a court decides on confiscation. If the court orders the criminal assets to be forfeited, the money will go into a Commonwealth account and will later be distributed by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to crime prevention and law enforcement programs.
This was not the first crypto recovery by the same AFP expert. In a separate case, the same data scientist helped recover more than 3 million AUD in digital assets using another decoding method. Both cases showed that Australian Federal Police, through digital forensics, can reach crypto wallets even when suspects do not share seed phrases.
