US federal appeals court rejects prisoner's claim 354 million $Bitcoin

A U.S. federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit by a Florida man, Michael Prime, seeking to recover more than $354 million worth of bitcoins. Prime claimed the bitcoins were stored on a hard drive destroyed by authorities when he was arrested for forgery and identity theft in 2019. The court ruled that Prime waited too long to file a claim, and that he repeatedly told investigators, probation officers and judges early on that he had little to no cryptocurrency holdings, contradicting later claims of owning "close to 3,443 bitcoins." Federal agents concluded their search for the bitcoins based on their early statements and subsequently destroyed the devices, including the orange hard drive involved. Prime was sentenced in 2020 to more than five years in prison.