In yet another controversy surrounding New Zealand’s collapsed cryptocurrency exchange, a former employee Cryptopia has admitted stealing customer data and nearly NZD250,000 ($ 176,000) in cryptocurrency from the platform he previously worked on.

Ex-Cryptopia ex-employee admits stealing $ 176,000 in crypto

The unidentified man appeared before Judge Gerard Lynch in Christchurch District Court earlier today, admitting his attorney stole information from someone with a special relationship and stolen more than NZ $ 1,000, according to local news outlet Stuff.co. nz reported.

A fact sheet from Monday’s hearing shows that the former employee reportedly reached out to management to discuss his concerns about the security of his private keys. He illegally copied private keys from Cryptopia’s wallet and saved them on a USB storage device. The former employee then brought the device home and uploaded the information to his PC.

Cryptopia was reportedly hacked again last February, with perpetrators stealing an additional NZD 62,000 ($ 44,000) in cryptocurrency after an attack in January 2019 enabled criminals to steal the $ 30 million in cryptocurrency. The February 1 attack gave hackers access to a wallet that has been inactive since the January 2019 attack and belongs to US blockchain company Stakenet. In total, the wallet is estimated to contain around 2.7 million NZD from the Stake Network (XSN), Stakenet’s native token.

The company that owns Cryptopia was put into liquidation in May 2019. Since then, the process has been managed by the accounting firm Grant Thornton. After the liquidation, Cryptopia terminated the employees’ contracts, but the former employees kept copies of the private keys.

Last September, a former Cryptopia customer emailed a representative from Grant Thornton claiming that he had accidentally deposited Bitcoin (BTC) in his old wallet and requested the return of the cryptocurrency. A subsequent review of the platform’s wallets revealed that 13 BTC ($ 447,000) had been withdrawn from various wallets without Grant Thornton’s permission.

On September 10, the former employee admitted to stealing bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies worth around NZD 100,000. He claims to have returned part of the collected cryptocurrency and offers to refund the rest. The former employee then returned the BTC and demanded an assurance that if he returned the remaining crypto in his possession, he would not be charged with theft.

In the same month, the New Zealand police man admitted that he illegally copied keys from Cryptopia’s resources and stole cryptocurrency.

“The defendant admitted that he was frustrated with Cryptopia, but was also motivated by the belief that he could get away with the theft because he thought that no one would check the old deposit wallets,” the abstract reads.

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