Search as a means of criminal procedural proof in criminal proceedings involving virtual assets: selected procedural and digital aspects

The article provides a comprehensive scholarly analysis of search as a means of criminal procedural proof in criminal proceedings involving virtual assets, taking into account their legal and technological nature. It is substantiated that the development of digital financial instruments and the widespread use of distributed ledger technologies necessitate the transformation of traditional approaches to criminal procedural proof. Virtual assets, as intangible objects existing within decentralized information systems and controlled through cryptographic means of access, cannot be directly obtained as physical items, which determines the specific features of their search, detection, seizure, and procedural fixation.

It is demonstrated that in this category of criminal proceedings, search acquires the characteristics of a complex means of criminal procedural proof, whose functional purpose extends beyond the traditional identification of physical data carriers and includes gaining access to digital environments, identifying cryptographic means of control, identifying virtual assets, and ensuring proper fixation of relevant information.

The key aspects of conducting a search in criminal proceedings involving virtual assets are systematically examined, including preliminary technical preparation, search and detection of digital devices and means of access, identification of virtual assets and digital services, establishment of factual control over assets, involvement of a specialist, and procedural fixation of the obtained information.

It is substantiated that the identification of virtual assets has a complex nature and is carried out through the analysis of a set of interrelated digital data, which, in their entirety, form an evidentiary link between a person and an asset.

Particular attention is paid to the establishment of control over virtual assets through the creation of official cryptocurrency wallets and the execution of transactions, which are considered as a tool for ensuring the preservation of assets.

It is concluded that the search record (protocol) plays a key role in transforming digital data into evidence, acting as an independent procedural source of evidence in criminal proceedings. It is within this record that the legitimization of information about virtual assets is carried out through their proper fixation and ensuring the possibility of verification, while material data carriers perform an auxiliary function and acquire evidentiary value only in inseparable connection with it.