Australian Federal Police accessed a cryptocurrency wallet holding A$9 million after a data scientist decoded information found on a suspect’s phone, Commissioner Krissy Barrett said in an October 29, 2025 address.
Recovery phrase decoded
Investigators found password-protected notes containing an image of numbers and words. The scientist identified added numbers at the beginning of sequences and removed them to recover a 24-word seed phrase.
Barrett said the same specialist had also recovered more than A$3 million from another wallet using a different method.
Assets restrained pending court decisions
The AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce restrained the cryptocurrency. Barrett said that, if a court ordered confiscation, proceeds would go to a Commonwealth account supporting crime-prevention measures.
The address described an investigation involving an alleged offender. Restraint of assets does not itself establish a conviction or final confiscation order.
Correction — 2026-09-07: This article has been revised against the commissioner’s published address. Unsupported direct quotations have been removed, and Australian-dollar amounts and the distinction between asset restraint and court-ordered confiscation have been clarified.