A federal appeals court in America has denied Michael Prime's request – a man from Florida – to recover over 354 million USD worth of Bitcoin that he claims was lost after authorities destroyed a hard drive seized in a 2019 arrest related to identity theft and forgery.
According to the ruling announced on Tuesday, the 11th Circuit Court upheld the lower court's decision, stating that Prime had “unreasonably delayed” in filing its request and that this delay prevented the government from returning the destroyed hard drive.
The judges stated that Prime had repeatedly asserted to investigators, custodians, and judges that he owned very little or no crypto at all, completely contradicting his later testimony that he held “approximately 3.443 Bitcoin.” Based on the initial testimony, the investigation agency concluded the search and destroyed the devices, including the orange hard drive that was central to the case.
Prime was sentenced to over 5 years in prison in 2020 for charges of device access fraud, serious identity theft, and illegal possession of weapons. After completing his prison term, he claimed that the hard drive containing the private key ( to access the aforementioned Bitcoin was destroyed.
The court concluded that even if Bitcoin actually exists, compensating Prime would be “unfair” because he caused the government to suffer losses due to delays and contradictory testimonies.
According to a report by River Financial in 2025, there are currently between 2.3 to 4 million BTC – equivalent to 11% to 18% of the total supply – considered to be permanently lost, including about 3.8 million BTC in wallets that have been inactive for over 10 years.
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