So here’s the deal. I'm Ukrainian and my husband is from Pakistan. We used to live in Kherson, Ukraine, the first city that Russian forces took over. The story of how we escaped is pretty intense. My husband was really close to dying, but he pulled off some amazing moves to get me, him, and our 3-year-old daughter out safely. We hit the road to Moldova, hung out there for a couple of days, then drove to Romania. After Romania, we flew to France. Not only did we save ourselves, but we also managed to help 209 other families, all of them women and kids. My husband handled everything solo and actually paid for all of that. Each evacuation was around $1200 per person. We moved at least 597 people in total, all out of our own pocket. It even made the news on places like Sky News, BBC, CNN, and others.
So my husband's family in Pakistan was super worried about us. We thought it’d be good to fly to Pakistan for a couple of weeks before starting fresh in Lisbon, Portugal. Then a week later, my husband started having awful pain in his hip. We went to a nearby international hospital just as a routine check. The doctor didn’t like the look of things. They did some basic muscle and bone tests and then ordered more tests.
Fast forward a couple of days, we got a call from the hospital. They told us Hussain might have cancer and needed more tests to be sure. Long story short, after about two weeks and a bunch of tests and biopsies, it was confirmed that Hussain is dealing with cancer. Treatment started right away.
Now, about the crypto stuff: My husband has been trading bitcoins for profit since 2013.
1) First I'm not 100% sure how authorities see cryptos in Pakistan, I know they don't recognize them as any kind of currency or assets so if nothing has changed you have little chance to make the police act on it, it will be like asking them to retrieve your coins in World of Warcraft! You can try filing a case on the higher authority or cybercrime units, whatever that branch is called in Pakistan, since you have relatives there wouldn't it be better to ask them to find a lawyer or a legal counselor?
2) You can make a claim against the casino but you have little chance of winning in this case, for once you don't know if they haven't passed KYC, it's quite easy to do with forged documents, or you could simply buy an already verified account, the court will most likely just find them in breach of keeping up with AML regulation but it's unlikely to award you damages on the expense of the casino if they can prove they acted in good faith. But again, you will have to prove the thieves were the ones playing with your funds!
3) The casino is not registered there because of tax, it's because of gambling licenses, normally one should take your case in Curacao, if not of course in Europe, but you're not an EU citizen, and furthermore, you have no case as it is against that casino. Without a court decision that would prove your funds were stolen from you and used there with your consent, any judge will dismiss this case. Just think, how would you combat an accusation that gave those funds to a friend, the friend played and got the money, and now you're asking for them once more? Or how are you going to dispose of accusations you were the ones playing the casino?
4) As it is right now, with you having zero official proof of the theft, without police cooperation, chances are zero!
5) Irrelevant as per 4.
You only way to recover the funds is to make the police in Pakistan act and identify the robbers, then make the claim on the stolen coins in court, if the thieves have anything left or they have property or cash or any other thing of value under their name you can ask a legislator to seize that and auction it to make up for the damages.
I won't comment on the other things, but this one:
makes zero sense! ZERO!
You need professionals to get your coins back. I heard about companies like https://www.group-ib.ru/
They work with the police of different countries and help the police to find robbers. I've heard good things about them. The company is Russian, but they have branches in many countries of the world and have good experience in combating cybercrime.
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But it is very strange to me that such an experienced cryptocurrency user kept 97% of his coins in his phone and did not use a hardware wallet for plausible deniability.
@OP you left out an important detail imo, where are you citizen of? If you're a citizen of Ukraine, you might be best finding a solicitor that's fled as a refugee (or for business) to a close neighbour of Ukraine. France and other EU countries might take it but there's less of a chance imo than someone who's able to take the case in or near Ukraine.
2. They might or might not do kyc, it all depends on the casino they sent the funds to but it's not too hard to find out (check the ToS or privacy policy).
3. Someone probably has power over the casino to do something - whether they do depends on a lot of things and they're probably more likely to not.
4&5 depends on how much help you can get and how well Investigations by governments are done for you (if they can be).
How much do you trust whoever told you the 75% of funds were in a casino though too? Have they sent you that evidence? Do they want payment before they do (this is a fairly common scam technique)?
Bad choice. In a bear market it's bitcoin that always holds the most of its value. Altcoins get wasted. Someone who was involved since 2013 should know that.
Wallets should be secured by passwords. Did they force you to give it up?
Legal, therefore worth 0? It doesn't make sense.
In fact, it's not regulated, but not illegal. I understand they don't recognize it as property so they will not help you get it back. It's too difficult to understand for these people I guess, so they don't want anything to do with it.
Pretty normal in a country where the population speaks over 10 languages and you can easily disappear in the crowd.
Since you're in Pakistan where, I dare to say, things are done under the table, I don't think you'll be able to do much. You can file a complaint but they'll tell you that they don't recognize bitcoin and they aren't educated nor equipped to look for it.
That's the best course of action. You should get a lawyer and make him write to them. Maybe the casino will help knowing the funds someone gambled with were stolen. After all, the casino was cheated, used to launder money. It should pursue legal action with you, not against you.
Many businesses help track stolen money. Contact the casino before you start a court case.
We're talking about millions in stolen money here. I'd try.
Nobody will answer that. It can be months, but also can be years.
And I thought my life was hard in 2022. Sorry to hear that you're in this mess. Wish you guys used that paper wallet to move your coins right after your phones were stolen.
I am reluctant to believe sobbing stories I read on forums, especially if they come from newbies, but what she tells sounds plausible.
I am sorry to tell you that I sincerely believe that you are not going to get anything, to begin with because for an investigation to be initiated, let alone a trial, you would have to prove that those bitcoins belonged to you and you will not be able to do it because you no longer have the private keys. You only have your word and that does not even start an investigation.
The moral I take from this is:
1) Don't tell people you have cryptocurrencies.
2) Put yourself in the worst case scenario and anticipate that they might try to steal them. For that case it is quite sensible to have a wallet to give to thieves both at home and if you escape to another country, and another much better hidden even in another location.
If you are going to carry $3 million in cryptocurrencies, then use a hardware wallet, not a phone.
And I will echo something else that the other people here have mentioned: Don't tell anyone that you have large amounts of money (unless you have armored security to protect you. But even then, I advise descretion).