Michael Prime was arrested in 2019 for counterfeiting and identity theft after police found piles of evidence connected to his crimes: fake credit cards, fake driver’s licenses, laptops, and the like.

Over four years later, he requested the return of an orange external hard drive that was seized, claiming that it contained the cryptographic keys necessary to access close to 3,443 bitcoin—now worth over $345 million.

The problem? At least three times before— in his financial disclosure statement, in his interview with the probation office, and at his sentencing hearing—Prime had represented that he owned very little bitcoin. And the government had relied on these representations, abandoning its search for the bitcoin. Prime’s story remained the same when he went to recover his devices after he got out of prison: he never told the government one of the hard drives contained valuable bitcoin. And the government, consistent with its ordinary practices and after giving notice to Prime, wiped what devices it could. The rest, including the hard drive in question here, were destroyed. For years, Prime denied that he had much bitcoin at all. And bitcoin was not on the list when he sought to recover missing assets after his release from prison. Only later did Prime claim to be a bitcoin tycoon.

By then it was too late. Whether it contained bitcoin or not, the hard drive had been destroyed by the government. Prime now claims that the United States, because it destroyed the hard drive containing his bitcoin key, owes him roughly $345 million in bitcoin. The district court, citing Prime’s delays and denials concluded that laches barred his bitcoin request. We agree and affirm.