{"id":31829,"date":"2026-06-15T21:06:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T21:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/31829\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T21:06:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T21:06:20","slug":"jamie-lawrence-powrie-charged-over-5-7-million-bitcoin-bust-released-on-bail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/31829\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamie Lawrence Powrie charged over $5.7 million bitcoin bust released on bail"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man from the far south coast is under house arrest after being granted bail to fight charges over his alleged access to $5.7 million worth of bitcoin gained from illegal activity on the dark web.<\/p>\n

Jamie Lawrence Powrie was arrested on May 27, 2025 and charged with dealing with property of the proceeds of crime equal to $5 million or more, failing to comply with a digital evidence access order and supplying prohibited drugs of indictable quantity.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old man appeared in Batemans Bay Local Court today via video link from South Coast Correctional Centre for a bail hearing.<\/p>\n

\"Court<\/p>\n

Jamie Lawrence Powrie appeared in court via a video link. (ABC News: Holly Tregenza)<\/p>\n

The crown solicitor appearing for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Kirsty MacKinnon, referred to the seriousness of the charges in opposing bail.<\/p>\n

Ms MacKinnon said the crown will be alleging the cryptocurrency was used to buy the house Mr Powrie was in at the time of his arrest.<\/p>\n

The court also heard Mr Powrie’s name was on the laptops seized and Mr Powrie and a co-accused were known to each other.<\/p>\n

Mr Powrie’s lawyer argued his client had been in custody since May 2025 and there had been “significant delays before the court”.<\/p>\n

His lawyer also told the court parts of the case were “technical” and it would be difficult for the accused to prepare his case in custody.<\/p>\n

Judge Doug Dick granted Mr Powrie bail due to the length he had already been in custody and with strict conditions, including he remain under house arrest.<\/p>\n

The matter will return to court on July 27.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest crypto seizures\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Powrie’s arrest was part of Strike Force Andalusia which was set up by the NSW Police in September 2024.<\/p>\n

The strike force was tasked to investigate a large amount of bitcoin held in a cryptocurrency wallet, allegedly the proceeds of illegal activity on the dark net.<\/p>\n

On 27 May 27, 2025, police searched a home in Surfside, a northern suburb of Batemans Bay, and allegedly seized several electronic devices and about 7.2 grams of cocaine.<\/p>\n

During a forensic analysis of the devices, police allegedly seized $47,000 worth of cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

During the search of the Ingleburn property, detectives seized electronic devices where they allegedly uncovered 52.3 bitcoin. (Supplied: NSW Police)<\/p>\n

In the early hours of May this year, police raided a house in the south-west Sydney suburb of Ingleburn, seizing mobile phones and electronic devices which allegedly uncovered 52.3 bitcoin, valued at about $5.7 million.<\/p>\n

NSW Police Commander of State Crime Command’s Cybercrime Squad, Detective Superintendent Matt Craft, said the seizure was “one of the biggest cryptocurrency seizures in the nation’s history”.<\/p>\n

Investigations under the strike force are ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man from the far south coast is under house arrest after being granted bail to fight charges…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,1113,21545,29201,29202],"class_list":["post-31829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bail","tag-bitcoin","tag-jamie-lawrence-powrie","tag-strike-force-andalusia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}