There is a history of it being very difficult access to TV and movies legitimately with only a few channels and shows often never coming or coming years later. This drove a lot of demand for piracy in NZ over the years.

Yup. It's always been this way. Long before fiber was around. "Not available in your country"... We'll see about that.

I think it's because historically NZ had terrible access to media. Often you wouldn't even be able to buy movies or TV series even if you wanted to, and TV shows would air 6 months to a year behind the USA, now it's usually within the same week. I remember sometimes even torrenting DVD rips for movies before they were even in the cinema.

No, that's not the point at all.

He did nothing to hide his identity from the payment processors. Money went straight to his meatspace bank account. So he was screwed from the start.

> a criminal should spend ill-gotten funds

Or bury that treasure

Obfuscated cold storage for God’s sake. It’s crypto, who knows what that could be worth by the time you’re out of prison.