Korean Tax Agency Accidentally Leaks Wallet Mnemonic, Suspected Cause of $4.8M Crypto Assets Theft

**South Korea’s Tax Agency Exposes Crypto Wallet Mnemonic; Suspected Hackers Steal Assets** February 27 – South Korean media reports that the National Tax Service (NTS) mistakenly published the full mnemonic phrase of a seized cryptocurrency wallet in press materials (with no redaction), allowing suspected hackers to siphon off related assets. On February 26, the NTS announced results of on-site inspections targeting 124 high-value, habitual tax delinquents, seizing ~8.1 billion South Korean won ($6.1 million) in total assets. Among the cases, “Case 3” involved seizing four crypto hardware wallets from a delinquent’s residence drawer. Photos released with the press release clearly showed a paper listing the wallet’s recovery mnemonic phrase next to a Ledger device. Blockchain explorer Etherscan records show that shortly after the mnemonic was exposed (early February 27), ~4 million PRTG tokens were transferred in three transactions to unknown addresses. Before the transfers, the wallet address received a small amount of ETH to cover gas fees. The stolen assets are valued at ~$4.8 million (~640 million KRW). Scholars criticized the NTS’s action as “publicly revealing the wallet key,” calling out law enforcement’s fundamental lack of digital asset security knowledge.