US authorities announced Monday that they have seized $3.4 billion worth of bitcoins stolen from the Silk Road online narcotics site a decade ago. James Zhong, 32, pleaded guilty Friday to stealing more than 50,000 bitcoins in September 2012, the New York State Attorney’s Office detailed in a press release. The virtual currencies were found during a search warrant at James Zhong’s home in Georgia in November 2021. They were stored in a safe hidden under the floor and on the computer under blankets in the bathroom cabinet disguised in a metal popcorn box. .
“For nearly a decade, questions about the whereabouts of this vast amount of missing bitcoins have been mounting. (become) $3.3 Billion Mystery”Prosecutor Damian Williams said in a press release. “Thanks to cutting-edge cryptocurrency tracking technology and good old-fashioned law enforcement, law enforcement has discovered and recovered this impressive stash of criminal proceeds.“, he added.
However, the value of the spoils has fallen since the action in the fall in the price of bitcoin, and is just over $1 billion on Monday. According to prosecutors, Mr. Zhong defrauded Silk Road in 2012 by creating nine different accounts and quickly making about 140 transactions to trick the site’s system into paying him about 50,000 bitcoins, which were in turn quickly transferred to other addresses.
James Zhong faces 20 years in prison. His sentence will be determined in February. The Silk Road website was created in January 2011 and was used to sell numerous illegal goods, including $200 million worth of drugs worldwide, before being shut down by the FBI in October 2013. Its creator, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced to life in prison in 2015. prison This is the second-largest bitcoin seizure by the US Department of Justice after 94,000 bitcoins, valued at $3.6 billion, were recovered from a New York couple in a hack of a trading platform. Bitfinex Virtuals in 2016
Source: Le Figaro
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