Individual behind $3.4B Silk Road Bitcoin theft sentenced to one year in prison

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has announced the verdict of an individual who pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges related to bitcoin “illegally obtained” from the Silk Road Marketplace in 2012.

In an April 14 announcement, the U.S. Department of Justice Said James Zhong was sentenced to 1 year and 1 day in prison for carrying out a plot to steal over 51,680 Bitcoins (BTC). Zhong said he pleaded guilty in November 2022 and was awaiting sentencing.

“Cybercriminals should heed this message: We will track your money and hold you accountable, no matter how clever your scheme is and how long it takes.

According to Williams, Zhong stole BTC in 2012 and was able to cover up the crime for about a decade before being prosecuted. U.S. authorities seized Bitcoin holdings from his Zhong home in Georgia in November 2021 and found most of the crypto in a floor safe and a computer hidden in a can of popcorn. The coin was worth about $3.4 billion at the time.

In a federal prosecutor’s sentencing memo against Silk Road bitcoin thief James Zhong, investigators seized criminal proceeds from a “single-board computer that had been submerged under a blanket of popcorn cans stored in a bathroom closet.” Did. (Judgment is at 3pm today). pic.twitter.com/7aamQryQ6B

— Rachel Scharf (@rscharf_) April 14, 2023

Related: US Government Plans to Sell 41K Bitcoins Connected to Silk Road

The Silk Road marketplace, which has been defunct for about a decade, has drawn the attention of US authorities after allowing users to buy and sell illegal goods such as weapons and stolen credit card information. The platform’s creator, Ross Ulbricht, was arrested in 2013 and is currently serving two life sentences with no possibility of parole.

magazine: US enforcement agencies heat up on crypto-related crimes