British tax authorities seize NFTs for the first time

The British Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has seized NFTs for the first time. That happened in a fraud case. In addition to NFTs, the British tax authorities also seized five thousand dollars in cryptocurrencies.

As far as we know, this is the first case in which a government seizes NFTs. The HMRC has not linked any value to the three NFTs, the BBC reports. It is therefore unknown whether these are known or expensive NFTs. The HMRC had a court order for the seizures of the digital assets of the three suspects.

These are NFTs of digital artworks, the government agency stated. It is unknown whether it concerns purchased NFTs or whether the suspects had minted the NFTs. It is also unclear how the British service gained access to the NFTs.

The seizure of the NFTs occurred in a case involving three suspects. The agency found this out through VAT fraud involving 250 fake companies. The suspects tried to hide their online identities using false identities, fake addresses, prepaid phones and VPNs, the HMRC said. The total value of the fraud was approximately 1.67 million euros.