A specialist forensic accountant has been called in to analyse a drug dealer’s claims he made a fortune trading in Bitcoin.
The Crown is trying to claw back £800,000 from Dale Pearson, from Dundee.
Pearson is alleged to have made more than £750,000 from criminal activity and the cash is at the centre of a Proceeds of Crime battle.
Pearson will fight the action by claiming he made huge profits trading in the highly volatile cryptocurrency market.
Solicitor Iain Houston, for Pearson, told Dundee Sheriff Court: “We are awaiting an updated report from a forensic accountant regarding his historical Bitcoin trading.
“The Crown have indicated they would require four weeks to consider that report and perhaps then adjust the settlement figure.”
The hearing was continued until August.
Drug runner
Pearson, who was jailed for five years for drug running, had previously been charged with setting up a web design company to front a large-scale fraud.
He was said to have scammed a £250,000 mortgage before “concealing, disguising, converting and transferring” cash and Bitcoin amounting to £789,046.64 over the course of six years.
The money laundering charges, said to be connected to serious and organised crime, were dropped when Pearson admitted dealing cocaine and ketamine.
Pearson said he lacked information about the Crown action but believed they were trying to claw back a total close to £800,000 from him.
In 2018, Pearson faced a 12-charge indictment in court alleging he moved vast sums of money around and used a fraudulent mortgage to buy a luxury six-bedroom property in Dundee.
Prosecutors alleged he laundered cash through various bank accounts and converted £25,900.91 into the online cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Pearson was alleged to have transferred £57,015.71 out of the country to banks and businesses in Pakistan, China, Dubai and Hong Kong.
In a complex scheme Pearson was said to have set up a business and website in the name of Pearson Web Design to front the fraud.
The Crown alleged Pearson Web Design did not undertake the business of web design, no VAT returns were ever filed and the business was “a front to explain income.”
One of the charges alleged Pearson “did conceal, disguise, convert and transfer criminal property” – namely “sums of money and bitcoins” amounting to £789,046.64 between September 1 2011 and August 31 2017.
He was eventually convicted of drug dealing after Parcelforce staff found bags of white powder stuffed inside a board game being sent to a Dundee address.
The drugs were recovered in 2015 and found to have a potential street value of nearly £90,000.
He also admitted having other drugs and was jailed for five years.
