The Swedish Minister of Justice, Gunnar Strömmer, ordered local authorities to intensify efforts aimed at grasping assets such as cryptocurrency, luxury products and real estate under a new radical law targeting unexplained wealth, even individuals who are not directly involved in crimes.
The main dishes to remember:
- The new law of Sweden allows authorities to grasp assets, including the crypto, of anyone who unable to prove the legitimacy of its wealth.
- More than $ 8.3 million has already been confiscated since November 2024.
- The concerns are increasing among legal experts concerning the potential violations of civil freedoms.
Addressing Dagens Industri on Thursday, Strömmer urged the police, tax authorities and the Swedish authority for the application of laws to prioritize the cases likely to result in significant confiscations.
The Minister of Justice revealed that more than $ 8.3 million assets had been seized since the law entered into force in November 2024. “It is now time to further transform the pressure,” said Strömmer.
Controversial legislation allows authorities to grasp species, banking assets and luxury articles of people unable to prove that their wealth corresponds to their income or offers a legitimate explanation for its origin.
The Swedish government announced during the success of the measure it aimed to repress violent crimes by disturbing criminal finances.
“This means that a person who, for example, has large amounts of money, significant banking assets or luxury items can lose them if they have no income proportional to property and cannot explain otherwise where it comes from,” said the government at the time.
Although it is not clear how many of the $ 8.3 million so far seized are linked to cryptocurrency, the law has already aroused concerns among legal experts and defenders of civil freedoms.
The economist reported in December that a woman traveling at Gothenborg-Landxtre airport had $ 137,000 and a Rolex watch confiscated, while about $ 1 million in assets were seized during the first week of application.
In April, the Swedish deputy Rickard Nordin called on the Minister of Finance to consider adopting Bitcoin as a reserve asset, proposing that the authorities retain the BTC seized rather than liquidating, similar to a “neutral budget” approach used by the United States
Pressure for a reserve of digital assets comes after former American president Donald Trump signed a decree in March by creating a national cryptography reserve, potentially influencing legislators abroad to explore similar strategies.
Swedish deputies push to add bitcoin to national reserves
In April, two Swedish legislators urged the Minister of Finance, Elisabeth Svantesson, to consider adding Bitcoin to the exchange reserves of Sweden, highlighting her similarities with gold and potential as coverage against economic instability.
Their proposal includes the direct accumulation of Bitcoin or the adoption of a neutral budgetary strategy by keeping the BTC seized in criminal cases instead of selling them at auction.
At the heart of the proposal of the Swedish legislators is the belief that bitcoin could serve as digital gold, an asset capable of preserving value during the economic upheaval.
In particular, this method allowed the American government to quietly build large quantities of BTC, a decision formalized in March when Donald Trump signed a decree making part of the Bitcoin of the framework of the national reserve.
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