Accused of "Big Bitcoin robbery" escapes Iceland and flees by plane in which Prime Minister was traveling
This week, Sindri Thor Stefansson, an Icelander accused of plotting the theft of 600 computers used to mine bitcoins, escaped from prison and fled to Sweden.
It is believed that Stefansson escaped from Sogn, a low security prison located in rural southern Iceland, through a window and embarked on a flight to Stockholm, which also transported the Prime Minister of Iceland. The incident occurred early on Tuesday, but the guards did not report it until the flight to Sweden took off.
The Icelandic police suspect that the persecuted could board the flight to the Baltic country at the Icelandic international airport in Keflavik, traveling with someone else's passport.
"He had an accomplice," police chief Gunnar Schram told Vishir, an online news outlet in that country. "We are sure of that."
The Swedish police ratify the suspicions that Stefansson is in that country, but so far no arrest has been made.
The defendant was among the 11 people arrested earlier this year for stealing hundreds of computers from a cryptocurrency mine; a fact that was described as the "Big Bitcoin Heist" (Great Bitcoin Heist) in the Icelandic media.
The stolen equipment has been valued at almost USD $ 2 million, but if it was used for its original purpose - generating bitcoins - the thieves could get huge profits in an untraceable currency without having to sell the computers.
Stefansson's escape is another turn in a criminal case unparalleled in the peaceful island nation, with a population of 340,000 and one of the lowest crime rates in the world.
Police Commissioner Olafur Helgi Kjartansson told The Associated Press in March that it was "a great robbery on a scale never before seen."
The police have arrested 22 people in total, including a security guard, but without solving the theft: the machines are still in an unknown location.
Blessed with a large amount of renewable energy, Iceland has become a popular base for large virtual currency companies that use massive amounts of electricity running the mining machines.
The owners of the stolen computers have promised, in a limited public broadcast, a reward of USD $ 60,000 to anyone who can take the detectives to the stolen computers.
Helgi Gunnlaugsson, a professor of sociology at the University of Iceland, commented that keeping a high-profile prisoner in a low-security environment was unusual, but that his organized escape was more unusual.
"The escapes of detainees in Iceland generally mean that someone simply ran away to get drunk," he said jokingly. "It is extremely difficult to hide, let alone flee the country."