Mike Schmidt, co-founder of Bitcoin non-profit Brink, stated that the U.S. FBI issued a subpoena requiring the personal information of attendees at a 2022 Bitcoin core developer event.
The FBI subpoena is purportedly in connection with a hack that led to the theft of 216 BTC from Bitcoin developer, Luke Dashjr.
“As part of the investigation into Luke Dashjr’s announced theft of his bitcoins, I received a subpoena from the FBI wanting information about attendees of the October 2022 CoreDev Atlanta event in the days before TABConf 2022. I was legally advised to cooperate,” stated Schmidt from an email screenshot that a pseudonymous X user named mikeinspace shared on Wednesday.
In addition, Schmidt confessed having sent the email and informed the attendees in the message that he had given the FBI their email addresses, GitHub usernames, and first and last names. Schmidt added that the FBI had required him to keep the subpoena a secret for a year, but that year had just ended when he sent the email.
Schmidt added, “I do not have any details about the investigation or whether the subpoena was due to a targeted suspect or general information gathering as part of the investigation.”
The co-founder of Brink stated that he has not spoken to the FBI since, but he would not comment on specifics.
On December 31, 2022, Bitcoin core developer Luke Dashjr stated that he lost more than 200 BTC as a result of a Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) key compromise. At the time, this was estimated to be worth approximately $3.3 million. The price of 200 Bitcoin is more than $14 million at its current market value.