Australian Woman Jailed for Theft of More Than 100,000 XRP

An Australian woman has been sentenced to over two years in prison for a major theft of the XRP cryptocurrency in January 2018.According to a report Tuesday by Australian news outlet Information Age, 25-year-old Kathryn Nguyen was sentenced to two years and three months by Judge Chris Craigie for hacking a victim's wallet and making off with over 100,000 units of XRP.Nguyen and an associate infiltrated a 56-year-old man's cryptocurrency account by swapping his two-factor authentication to her own mobile phone.

She later transferred the stolen XRP to an unnamed exchange where it was traded for bitcoin before being distributed across multiple wallets.

The funds are now worth just under US$30,000, but were reportedly exchanged at the cryptocurrency's peak in early 2018 when they were worth up to around $300,000.

Judge Craigie said the crime was "Out of character" for Nguyen and that her "Moral judgment was distorted" at the time.

After an almost 12-month investigation, police raided Nguyen's home in Epping, a suburb of Sydney, last year, seizing computers, mobile phones and money.

Detective Superintendent Matthew Craft said reporting of cyber-related crime was a national issue and not solely that of the state of New South Wales.

According to Information Age, Nguyen is the first Australian to be charged over the theft of cryptocurrencies.

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