'Big Bitcoin Heist' Suspect Escapes Iceland Prison On Sweden-Bound Flight

A man accused of masterminding the theft of 600 computers used to mine Bitcoin and other virtual exchange reportedly escaped from an Iceland prison on Tuesday and boarded a flight to Sweden.

The suspect, identified by police as Sindri Thor Stefansson, was captured on surveillance video boarding a flight to Sweden at Iceland's international airport in Keflavik, the Associated Press reported.

Authorities said he likely used a fake passport during his travel. The man was transferred to Sogn prison 10 days ago, just 59 miles from the airport, police said. Icelandic officials believed the man likely slipped through a cell window from the rural low-security prison he was confined to and that guards did not report him missing until after the Sweden-bound flight had departed.​

"He had an accomplice," Police Chief Gunnar Schram told Iceland news outlet Visir. "We are sure of that."

Stefansson was one of 11 suspects arrested in February for allegedly stealing computer equipment. The hardware was worth almost $2 million, the AP reported. Local media dubbed the incident "Big Bitcoin Heist," because it was Iceland’s most expensive theft thus far.

Police have since arrested 22 suspects, including a security guard in connection with the burglary. Still, the equipment remains missing and experts fear that recovering the stolen cryptocurrency may be impossible even if they located the computers.

"Unlike traditional banking mechanisms, blockchain currencies can be stolen and moved to thieves accounts with no means of recovery. Nothing can bring it back," Dr. Kevin Curran, a professor of cybersecurity at Ulster University and senior IEEE member, told the Independent. "This is a real and ever-present danger with cryptocurrencies and there have been ever-increasing incidents of coins being stolen, as seen recently."

Bitcoin is a computer-generated form of currency that is excepted worldwide. Created in 2009, the virtual money can be mined, a process that essentially legitimizes the currency and puts new tokens into circulation, according to Coin Telegragh.