According to ChainCatcher, citing Unchained, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) stated in a memorandum that it will review a practice of compensating investors with digital assets seized in fraud and theft cases at prices lower than their current market value.
The memorandum noted that the DOJ has focused on several prominent bankruptcy cases in 2022, including FTX, Voyager Digital, Celsius Network, Genesis Global, BlockFi, and Gemini Trust. Although not all these bankruptcy cases involve criminal charges, the DOJ pointed out that many of them resulted in investor losses due to "fraud and theft". Additionally, the DOJ highlighted that the value of these digital assets significantly increased in subsequent years.
However, the court's approach is not intended to cause creditors pain. The issue lies in the current U.S. bankruptcy laws, which stipulate that seized assets should be returned to victims at their dollar value at the time of fraud. While this may seem unfair, experts suggest that there are important reasons behind this rule, and changing it could be very challenging.
