Millions of dollars of illegal Bitcoin funds appeared to have been left by authorities on cryptocurrency wallets linked to the darknet Silk Road that was sequestered by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on November 5.

The sizeable sums of money held on forked addresses originating from those overlooked cryptocurrency wallets are accessible to criminals. DOJ authorities may still have access to those funds, according to Coinfirm, a London-based analytics firm.

The DOJ earlier stated that it had seized 69,370 bitcoins worth over $1 billion on the Silk Road web marketplace from a hacker, known as “Individual X.”

‘Individual X’ was able to escape the incident without facing any criminal charges and may still have control over the cryptocurrency wallets that were left behind.

Meanwhile, DOJ officials reaped praises for busting Silk Road and sequestering over $1 billion in Bitcoin funds.

Based on Coinfirm’s self-funded probe, the following assets are among those that DOJ authorities “seemingly overlooked and left in the hands of whoever has access to the private keys of the main wallet”:

• 693701 Bitcoin Diamond (“BCD”), which is presently worth approximately 310,000 USD
• 69370 Super Bitcoin (“SBTC”), which is presently worth approximately 66,000 USD
• 69370.11453606 Bitcoin Private (“BTCP”), which is presently worth approximately 11,000 USD

“Whoever has access to the private keys of the main wallet, would still have access to these funds,” Coinfirm said.

The investigation was conducted by Confirm’s latest service Reclaim Fork, which was launched last month.

“Coinfirm’s cryptographic tracing efforts have identified dozens of cases in which law enforcement authorities may have unknowingly left substantial funds accessible to suspects instead of properly accounting for and seizing those assets,” according to the analytics firm.

Additionally, Coinfirm said it is serving as a “strong advocate for cryptocurrency investors harmed by the illegal actions of cryptocurrency thieves, money launderers, and market manipulators.”

Pawel Kuskowski, CEO and co-founder of Coinfirm believes that "customer protection and market integrity is critical for the long-term value of the crypto market.”

----------------------------------------

Have a story you want USA Herald to cover? Submit a tip here and if we think it's newsworthy, we'll follow up on it.

Want to contribute a story? We also accept article submissions – check out our writer's guidelines here.