Trent Merrin, once a mainstay of the St George Illawarra Dragons’ forward pack and a State of Origin and Kangaroos representative, has been charged in New South Wales over the alleged theft of $140,000 in cryptocurrency. Detectives arrested the 36-year-old at his Barrack Point home on the NSW South Coast after a year-long probe into a report that a 29-year-old man’s crypto account had been accessed without permission and drained. Police executed a search warrant at Merrin’s address, seizing electronic devices for forensic examination, before charging him with “dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception.” He was granted conditional bail and is due to appear at Port Kembla Local Court on December 3. (ABC)

Merrin’s football résumé is substantial. He debuted with the Dragons in 2009, won a premiership with the club in 2010, logged more than 150 first-grade games there, and added a long stint at Penrith plus a year with Leeds in the English Super League. He represented New South Wales 13 times and played Tests for Australia before retiring during the 2021 season. In recent years he has cast himself as a crypto-curious investor and entrepreneur on social media profiles—context that now sits awkwardly alongside the allegations. (ABC)

Authorities have not specified which digital asset or platform was involved, but the core allegation is straightforward: investigators say the suspect obtained access to the victim’s online account and transferred about AUD $140,000 worth of cryptocurrency to a wallet under his control. That claim—access to an account followed by a transfer on-chain—is consistent with the way many crypto thefts unfold and is precisely what police say they will allege in court. The case originated in November 2024 with the Orana Mid Western Police District, then drew in the State Crime Command’s Cybercrime Squad and Lake Illawarra officers, culminating in this week’s arrest and the seizure of devices for analysis. Those steps, together with blockchain tracing and account-level records typical in such cases, form the backbone of how alleged crypto thefts are built into chargeable briefs. (7NEWS)

Public reporting so far focuses on the charge and Merrin’s football past rather than the technical details of the breach or recovery prospects for the funds. If the crypto was moved across identifiable addresses, blockchain analysis could help tie transactions to exchanges or services that perform identity checks—often a path to freezing or recovering assets—but that remains speculative until police disclosures or court filings reveal more. For now, what’s clear is the timeline, the charge, and what comes next: Merrin has not publicly commented, he maintains the presumption of innocence, and his first court appearance is set for early December in Port Kembla, where the allegations will begin to be tested. (ABC)