Former Zimbabwe Cricket Coach Banned Eight Years for Accepting Bribe in Bitcoin

Following a 15-months investigation, former Zimbabwe cricket captain and head coach Heath Streak has been banned for eight years for his involvement in match fixing in 2018.

According to the International Cricket Council verdict today as published by Telegraph, the former Zimbabwe coach was bribed with two units of bitcoin (BTC) and an iPhone gift for his wife, to provide cricket-related information to one Mr. X for betting purposes.

Investigations revealed that Streak sold the bitcoin for $35,000 at the time, less than 250% of its current market value

Streaks’ Charges

Enticed by the offer, the accused gave out highly classified information about a tri-series cricket match involving Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan in 2017.

Part of the charges leveled against Streak was that he gave out information about the Zimbabwe versus Afghanistan series, as well as informing the bettor of expected happenings in IPL, Afghanistan Premier League, and Bangladesh Premier League.

Furthermore, Streak was accused of providing contact details of four players to Mr. X, where the bettor could be getting direct information about the team that would win a match in upcoming cricket matches.

“In respect of two of these players, Mr. Streak contacted the players to effectively vouch for Mr X,” the verdict read.

The ICC disclosed that the Zimbabwe cricket legend confessed that he tried to stall the ICC’s investigation by deleting his WhatsApp conversation with Mr. X.

Streak pleaded guilty to all charges leveled against him, thus leading to a reduced sanction, Telegraph noted.

ICC Hands Him 8-year Ban

Per the verdict, Streak’s involvement in match fixing saw him breach five rules of the ICC’s anti-corruption code related to sports betting, and will be banned from participating in cricket’s events for the next eight years, adding:

“He has also expressed his remorse and contrition and entered this agreed sanction decision to avoid the need for a full disciplinary process. The sanction reflects this cooperation.”

Bitcoin Bribery Not New

This is not the first time someone has received a bribe in bitcoin to commit an offense. People tend to take advantage of the cryptocurrency’s anonymous feature to evade getting caught by authorities.

Last year, Coinfomania reported that a Russian was arrested for attempting to bribe a staff of a Nevada-based company with $1 million in bitcoin.

The accused wanted the staff to plant malware in the company’s computer system, to steal valuable information.