According to a report by The Block, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a subpoena to Mike Schmidt, co-founder of the non-profit organization Brink, requesting personal information about attendees of the 2022 Bitcoin Core developer event. The subpoena is said to be related to Luke Dashjr, a Bitcoin core developer, who claimed to have had approximately 216 BTC stolen in a hacking attack.
An anonymous user named “Mike In Space” posted a screenshot of an email, in which Schmidt stated: “As part of the investigation into Luke Dashjr’s disclosure of his stolen bitcoins, I have received a subpoena from the FBI requesting information about attendees of the 2022 October CoreDev Atlanta event, which took place a few days before TABConf 2022. I am advised by law to cooperate.”
Schmidt confirmed to The Block that he sent the email and stated that he provided the attendees’ names, GitHub usernames, and email addresses to the FBI. He also mentioned that the FBI requested that he not disclose the subpoena within one year (which had already expired before he sent the email), adding, “I don’t know any details of the investigation or whether the subpoena is targeting a suspect or collecting general information as part of the investigation.”
Schmidt further informed The Block that he has not been in contact with the FBI since then and declined to comment on further details.
In January 2023, Luke Dashjr claimed to have lost over 200 BTC on December 31, 2022, due to a PGP key leak, estimating the loss to be around $3.3 million at the time, or approximately $14 million in current market value. Dashjr has also gained attention recently for publicly criticizing Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain.
