{"id":355942,"date":"2025-12-18T11:28:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T11:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/355942\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T11:28:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T11:28:25","slug":"ex-nrl-star-avoids-conviction-over-140k-crypto-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/355942\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-NRL star avoids conviction over $140k crypto theft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former NRL<\/a> star Trent Merrin has admitted to stealing $140,000 worth of cryptocurrency<\/a> from a friend but has walked away without a conviction.The 36-year-old former State of Origin<\/a> and Australian<\/a> Test lock was sentenced to an 18-month community release order without conviction for the crime<\/a>.Merrin was charged after his former friend and St George Illawarra Dragons teammate Kaide Ellis reported $140,000 worth of bitcoin missing, sparking a year-long police<\/a> investigation.\"\"\/Merrin was charged after his former friend reported $140,000 worth of bitcoin missing, (Nine)Court<\/a> documents said Merrin advised Ellis to create a cryptocurrency account in 2020 while the pair were playing for the Dragons.<\/p>\n

Ellis invested about $15,000 initially, but by the end of 2021 his investment was worth $90,000 as the value of bitcoin soared.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Merrin helped Ellis set up a ledger via a USB dongle to hold the crypto, offering extra protection from fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the duo stopped talking after a breakdown in their friendship.<\/p>\n

In late 2024, Ellis believed his bitcoin should be worth $140,000, but when he logged into his ledger he discovered his balance had been drained to zero.<\/p>\n

During the investigation<\/a>, police traced the bitcoin to a crypto account belonging to Merrin.<\/p>\n

He did not deny transferring the cryptocurrency from Ellis’s account, but he said he thought it was his own, the court documents said.<\/p>\n

Merrin offered to pay Ellis back in October 2025, a few weeks before he was arrested.<\/p>\n

\"TrentMerrin offered to pay Ellis back in October 2025, a few weeks before he was arrested.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, following a guilty plea, the ex-NRL star was sentenced in Port Kembla Local Court to a conditional release order that will expire in June 2027.<\/p>\n

The order requires him not to commit any offence and appear before court if called to do so any time during the next 18 months.<\/p>\n

During his rugby league career, Merrin played 13 games for NSW<\/a> and was part of the team’s drought-breaking success in 2014.<\/p>\n

He also played seven Tests for Australia and more than 150 games for the Dragons, winning the 2010 NRL grand final with the club.<\/p>\n

In 2015, he signed a five-year contract with the Penrith<\/a> Panthers and then played one season in the English Super League with Leeds.<\/p>\n

Merrin retired from the sport in April 2021, aged 32.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NRL star Trent Merrin has admitted to stealing $140,000 worth of cryptocurrency from a friend but has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-355942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}