After a year of failed attempts, the FBI has admitted defeat in its attempts to crack the encryption codes protecting hard drives belonging to a prominent Brazilian banker arrested in connection with a money laundering investigation.
According to local press reports, Brazilian police seized five hard drives from Daniel Dantas in July 2008 but after five months of failed attempts to decode them, the FBI was called in.
However, the Americans had no more luck accessing the files, which were encrypted using TrueCrypt, the free, open-source software, and another program.
The drives were handed back to Brazilian authorities - which have no powers to force either TrueCrypt or Dantas to hand over the passcodes - in April.
Dantas was arrested twice in 2008 as part of Operation Satyagraha, a money laundering investigation. He was released on both occasions but sentenced to 10 years in jail later that year for attempting to bribe a police officer.
Not even FBI was able to decrypt files of Daniel Dantas - Globo