A court in Brazil has authorized the sale of 27 Bitcoins seized from the alleged crypto Ponzi scheme Tradergroup. The stash is valued at $1.1 million and was seized from the company which operated as an investment firm where people could benefit from the coin market.

The transaction was made through the largest exchange in the country Mercado Bitcoin. This is the first time such a sale was authorized in the country.

This order became necessary as many victims of the Ponzi scheme moved to demand for their money back in a series of lawsuits. However, the proceeds of the sale has been reportedly not enough to reimburse all losses, as confirmed by the Federal Prosecutor who supervised the sale.

The stash of bitcoins were seized as part of the “Madoff” operation in the Espirito Santo area and involved a law enforcement operation in which 46 police officers carried out a series of raids and searches in Mato Grosso do Sul, and Acre as well as Espirito Santo where warrants were used to uncover the fraud.

According to Alexandre Senra, the federal prosecutor responsible for ordering the sale,

There are many victims of Tradergroup with lawsuits, mainly in the State Court, asking for the money invested back, and now a portion of this money will be able to be returned, not all because the credit sold in [bitcoin] was not enough to reimburse the losses.

The sale conducted by Mercado Bitcoin, a major exchange in the country ended with the coins sold at no less than 2% of the market value at the time of the sale. The proceeds were deposited in the court’s account.

In another case, the police in the country have also arrested another ponzi operator, Claudio Oliveira for a $300 million fraud. A third case that the police is working on has also led to the seizure of $33 million in a case that has not been made public.