Nigerian Returns $80k Bitcoins Transferred To Him In Error

A Nigerian who found $80,000 dollar’s worth of bitcoin had been mistakenly transferred to him, has returned it to the owner.

Keith Mali Chung woke up to find 7.8 bitcoins in his account. That is the equivalent of $80,000 or €72,302. He immediately began trying to track down the owner of the bitcoins.

Bitcoin is the original digital currency that is exchanged between users online.

“I trade in bitcoin, but never such a high amount,” Mali Chung explains on the phone from the Nigerian capital, Abuja and continues, “I knew it had to be a mistake so I posted an announcement via some WhatsApp groups to track down the owner.”

Three days passed and no-one responded, so Mali Chung took to Twitter to track down the owner. That prompted a response from someone who had the correct encryption code for the transaction.

Please RT,

I received huge sum of BTC from an unknown sender and it’s definitely a mistake from someone I must have had transaction with before, Kindly DM me time of transaction, your adress and exact digits sent..

thank you. Kindly retweet

Bitcoin Keith (The African Bitcoin Bull) (@BitcoinKeith) September 12, 2019

The owner of the bitcoins mistakenly transferred to Mali Chung is a Nigerian politician who has asked to remain anonymous.

Nigeria is plagued by political cronyism, and consistently ranks among the lowest 20 percent on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index..

In June, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force announced that cryptocurrency firms will be subjected to rules to prevent the abuse of digital coins such as bitcoin for money laundering.

The move by FATF, which groups countries from the United States to China and bodies such as the European Commission, reflects growing concern among international law enforcement agencies that cryptocurrencies are being used to launder the proceeds of crime.