犯罪沒收與虛擬貨幣之保全扣押初探

Study on Criminal Confiscation and Seizure of Virtual Currency: BitCoin as Application Example

本文在於探討科技金融創新下區塊鏈技術之諸多應用之一，虛擬貨幣，於刑法犯罪利得沒收新制下應如何進行扣押，同時以比特幣為例。由於比特幣在臺灣並未被視為法定貨幣，且其具有高度匿名、全球流通、手續費低廉等特性，極易被作為新興金融犯罪或重大刑事犯罪之工具。而事實上比特幣作為新興加密型之虛擬貨幣所潛藏之洗錢及資恐高風險，早已引起各國政府及司法單位注意。除了實體刑法及與刑事訴訟有關之新問題外，資產回收可能性的問題也隨之產生－這皆是由於比特幣的資產價值所致。於此之主要問題為，比特幣既非物亦非權利。對於因犯罪行為而產生的虛擬貨幣單位，如果存在價值損失的可能性，則無需考慮沒收，而在調查過程中如何確保比特幣也是具有實際重要性的問題。本文以德國法為例，針對扣押加密貨幣的法律基礎進行了初步探究，期能提供司法具體實踐提供參考。筆者認為根本之道仍須立法機關明確加密貨幣的法律性質。

This article is to discuss how to seize virtual currency, one of the applications of blockchain under the technology and financial innovation, under the new system of confiscation of criminal profits, and also take Bitcoin as an example. Since Bitcoin is not regarded as legal tender in Taiwan, and has the characteristics of high anonymity, global circulation, and low handling fees, it can easily be used as a tool for emerging financial crimes or serious criminal crimes. In fact, Bitcoin as an emerging encrypted virtual currency brings potential high risks of money laundering and capital fear, which have gradually attracted the attention of governments and judicial units of various countries. Besides questions of substantive criminal law and new problems relating to criminal procedure, the question of the possibility of asset recovery arises - due to the asset value of bitcoins. The main problem here is that Bitcoins are neither thing nor right. While in the case of virtual currency units resulting from a criminal offense, the possibility of If there is a loss of value, there is no recovery into consideration. The question of how is also of practical importance Bitcoins can be secured during the investigation. Taking German law as an example, this article conducts a preliminary study on the legal basis of seizure of cryptocurrency. The author hopes to provide reference for specific judicial practice and believes that the fundamental way still requires the legislature to clarify the legal nature of cryptocurrency.