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A erstwhile U.K. National Crime Agency officer, Paul Chowles, has been ordered to repay astir $2.38 cardinal for stealing 50 bitcoin seized during the probe of the Silk Road 2.0 dark-web marketplace.
Key Takeaways
- Former NCA serviceman Paul Chowles was sentenced successful July 2025 to implicit 5 years successful jailhouse for stealing 50 seized bitcoin.
- The bitcoin was collectively worthy little than $80,000 astatine the clip of the theft successful 2017, but Bitcoin has skyrocketed successful terms since.
- The CPS Proceeds of Crime Division volition usage recovered funds to wage compensation to the victim.
Dark Web Theft and Asset Laundering
A disgraced erstwhile National Crime Agency serviceman who stole seized cryptocurrency pursuing an probe into the dark web marketplace Silk Road 2.0 has been ordered to wage backmost much than $2.38 cardinal (£1.8 million).
Paul Chowles, 44, of Bristol, was jailed for 5 and a fractional years successful July 2025 aft pleading blameworthy to theft, transferring transgression spot and concealing transgression property. He was formally dismissed from the bureau connected July 11, 2025.
As portion of the instrumentality enforcement squad investigating Silk Road 2.0, a dark web marketplace utilized by organized transgression syndicates to merchantability amerciable goods, Chowles was assigned to analyse and extract cryptocurrency from seized integer devices. Exploiting his access, Chowles aboriginal surreptitiously transferred 50 bitcoins retired of a confiscated instrumentality enforcement wallet. At the clip of the theft successful 2017, the crypto haul was valued astatine astir $79,250.
According to a statement released by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Chowles subsequently attempted to conceal the integer way by routing the stolen funds done a analyzable bid of cryptocurrency transactions. However, fiscal investigators from Merseyside Police and the North West Regional Asset Recovery Team successfully traced the integer assets, yet recovering 30 of the 50 stolen bitcoin from him.
The appreciation of bitcoin implicit time, on with the remainder of his calculated transgression benefit, drove the last confiscation sum to astir $2.4 million. A compensation bid has besides been granted, directing that funds recovered from Chowles beryllium utilized to assistance successful satisfying the outstanding confiscation order of the unfortunate successful the archetypal case.
Prosecution Vows: ‘Crime Does Not Pay’
Luke Clements, a specializer authoritative successful the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, condemned Chowles’ breach of trust: “Paul Chowles exploited a presumption of spot for idiosyncratic gain, stealing assets that had already been recovered done instrumentality enforcement action.”
According to Clements, the confiscation orders nonstop a wide connection that instrumentality enforcement volition pursue offenders’ assets relentlessly and question to retrieve transgression proceeds wherever they are hidden.
“The CPS Proceeds of Crime Division volition proceed to enactment intimately with instrumentality enforcement partners to place transgression payment and instrumentality robust enactment to portion offenders of the profits of their crimes,” Clements said, adding that “crime does not pay.”
Over the past 5 years, the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division said it has recovered much than $700 cardinal done confiscation orders, with much than $135 cardinal returned straight to victims of transgression arsenic compensation.
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