How One Man Stole $3 Billion in Bitcoin and Got Away for Nearly a Decade

From purchasing cocaine to uncovering a multimillion-dollar glitch, the communicative of James “Jimmy” Zhong reads similar a acheronian comedy. Zhong, a machine subject graduate, exploited a vulnerability connected Silk Road to bargain implicit 50,000 bitcoin, evading detection for astir a decennary portion surviving a beingness of luxury.

The Unbelievable Tale of Jimmy Zhong: From Cocaine Purchase to Bitcoin Billionaire

This is simply a communicative tailor made for the Coen brothers, ala “Fargo” oregon “Burn After Reading.” James “Jimmy” Zhong, a 28-year-old University of Georgia machine subject graduate, executed the largest bitcoin theft successful history. From the infamous acheronian web marketplace Silk Road, Zhong pilfered implicit 50,000 bitcoin, valued astatine astir $3.4 cardinal successful 2023. Recently, a poster connected X that goes by the pseudonym BTCGandalf, recounted Jimmy’s communicative with colorful details. Read the thread for a story-like recounting with galore much details than this little summary.

The Incredible Story of the Unlikely Man Who Stole 50,000 BTC ($3B) From the Silk Road
🧵 pic.twitter.com/mSwSPZPcPE

— GANDALF (@BTCGandalf) January 26, 2024

Between 2012 and 2014, exploiting a flaw connected the Silk Road, Zhong was capable to drain the site’s blistery wallet of its monolithic bitcoin stash, implicit 51,680 bitcoin. In 1 of those stranger-than-fiction moments, Zhong aboriginal confessed to discovering and exploiting the glitch connected Silk Road aft purchasing cocaine.

Vinny D’Agostino, the FBI proceedings cause for the archetypal Silk Road Case, said successful a reply station to the thread that Ross Ulbricht, laminitis of Silk Road, “knew his information skills were anemic and wanted to adjacent immoderate gaps. The nonaccomplishment of the 50,000 bitcoin was major.” D’Agostino provided an representation of a spreadsheet Ross kept to log, among different things, his nett worth. “The orangish [is] his nett worth, which took a large hit. All of this grounds was recovered connected his Samsung 700z laptop which helium was utilizing astatine the clip of arrest.”

Despite his lavish spending and erstwhile run-ins with the law, including a DUI and a felony cause possession charge, Zhong remained undetected for astir a decade. However, his luck ran retired erstwhile 2 things happened successful 2019.

First, successful March 2019 idiosyncratic broke into his location stealing astir $400,000 successful currency and bitcoin. Inexplicably, Zhong called 911, asking the constabulary to transportation retired an investigation. Second, astir this clip Zhong had made the mistake of transferring a tiny information of his stolen bitcoin to a KYC-compliant exchange, catching the IRS’s attention.

The consequent probe by IRS agents, collaborating with section Athens police, who had antecedently believed Zhong’s communicative of being a savvy bitcoin investor, launched a covert cognition to unravel the truth. This culminated successful a hunt of Zhong’s spot successful November 2019, which unveiled the bulk of the stolen Silk Road bitcoin hidden successful a popcorn tin.

Zhong was arrested, pleaded blameworthy to 1 number of ligament fraud, and successful 2022 was sentenced to 366 days successful prison. His lawyer was capable to successfully reason it was a victimless crime, arsenic helium stole from a transgression enterprise.

The emergence and autumn of James “Jimmy” Zhong was a drama of errors. Or, arsenic D’Agostino puts it,

“[T]he information that Jimmy called the cops aft having immoderate of his bitcoin stolen highlights however galore cyber criminals (including Ross) were superb but lacked thoroughfare smarts.”

Do you deliberation that Jimmy has immoderate other bitcoin squirreled distant somewhere? Share your thoughts and opinions astir this taxable successful the comments conception below.