Man who 'likely' stole ex's cryptocurrency found not guilty, but judge urges him to help recover funds

A man accused of stealing thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency from an ex-girlfriend "likely" did it, according to a B.C. judge, but the challenges of tracking those virtual coins mean he has avoided a conviction.

Though Orion Alexander Holtby was found not guilty of fraud and theft, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ward Branch urged him to find a way to help the alleged victim reclaim her digital investment, valued at about $92,000 in March 2021.

The judge explained the Crown hadn't convinced him beyond a reasonable doubt that Joelle Oman's cryptocurrency had been stolen at all.

"Were this a civil matter, I would most likely have found you liable to the plaintiff. However, this is a criminal matter with a far more demanding burden," Branch told Holtby in a recent judgment.

"That said … to the extent that you may still be in a position to help Ms. Oman access her coins, I encourage you to consider doing so after taking appropriate advice from your counsel."

Holtby did not respond to requests for comment made through his lawyer or Facebook account.

The decision highlights how the criminal justice system is struggling to address crime in the cryptocurrency world, where high-profile frauds like those committed by the founder of the Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX have cost investors millions of dollars.

Sean Tweed, a cryptocurrency investigator with the Vancouver agency the Preston Matthews Group, said these crimes are both harder and easier to investigate than traditional theft and fraud.

That's because of the blockchain, a decentralized ledger that tracks the path of crypto coins.

"The information is all publicly available. Any individual can view the blockchain online and see transactions that occur," Tweed said.

"The issue is that the blockchain doesn't provide personal identifying information, so you can't decipher who specifically owns coins."

But Tweed said the Holtby case is very different from the thefts he usually investigates, which involve strangers living in different jurisdictions and stolen cryptocurrencies stored in unknown offshore locations.

In this case, Holtby had known Oman for years — they both lived in B.C. — and the coins were understood to be held in the world's largest bitcoin exchange, according to the judgment.

"Part of me is a little surprised that they weren't a little bit more successful given some of the advantages that they had," Tweed said.

'I know it does not look good'

From the beginning of his judgment, Branch acknowledged the challenges with prosecuting crypto crimes.

"Theft of physical property is relatively easy to describe. One person owns an object. Another takes that object without permission," the judge said.

"But what if the relevant property is a series of digital 1s and 0s, protected by multiple levels of passwords and protocols?"

The judgment makes it clear the truth of the matter has been difficult to sort out. Holtby did not testify, and the judge said Oman was "careless with evidence," raising concerns about her credibility.

Holtby and Oman dated when Holtby was in his early 20s, and Oman was 15, according to the judge.

They reconnected over Facebook in 2021 when Oman had already invested in a variety of cryptocurrencies, the judgment says.

By that time, Holtby had a criminal history, including convictions for fraud, theft, break and enter, possession of stolen property and causing an animal to be in distress, court records show. He was also featured in a 2013 CBC News investigation about problem tenants who refuse to pay rent and work the system to delay eviction.

The judgment says Oman asked Holtby to help her transfer her virtual coins into an account on the popular Binance exchange.

Holtby set up the account for Oman, along with an email address that could be used to access it, according to the judge. But Oman says she was never given the information she needed to get into either.

When she texted Holtby to ask why he was being "shady" and not answering her calls, he replied that he was having a bad day.

"Listen, I know it does not look good, but it is fine. I have some really serious things happening that I have to deal with," Holtby wrote in text messages included in the judgment.

When Oman was still unable to get into her Binance account a month later, she went to the police.

Investigators' expertise developing 'quite quickly'

Branch concluded that "although I believe it is likely, I have a reasonable doubt as to whether the accused has taken the coins." He said it was plausible the coins were still in Oman's account, and she either didn't know how to access it or had lost the passwords.

Upon reading the judgment, Tweed described this conclusion as a bit curious, considering the coins were held in a Binance account.

"Binance would have been able to provide information regarding the specific cryptocurrency held within that account and if that account had transferred any funds out," he said.

Tweed said it wasn't possible to tell if police or prosecutors had made a request to the company for that information or how Binance responded.

In general, Tweed says some police departments still don't have the training or software to properly investigate crypto crimes, but he's seen big improvements in the last few years.

"It's accelerated quite quickly," he said. "It seems that law enforcement definitely has more resources, and there's more specialized individuals, which has been really nice."