1 year ago
The U.S. Attorney has announced that the Department of Justice has seized $3.36 cardinal successful Bitcoin successful transportation with the 2012 Silk Road fraud.
A property merchandise issued connected Nov. 7 stated that “Over 50,676 Bitcoin Hidden successful Devices successful Defendant JAMES ZHONG’s Home” has been taken into custody pursuing Zhong’s condemnation astatine proceedings connected Nov. 4. The Bitcoin seizure marks not conscionable the largest crypto haul successful the past of the U.S. Department of Justice but the DOJ’s astir important fiscal seizure ever.
The quality comes alongside the revelation that Zhong pleaded blameworthy to charges of fraud connected Nov. 4 “to committing ligament fraud successful September 2012 erstwhile helium unlawfully obtained implicit 50,000 Bitcoin from the Silk Road acheronian web net marketplace.”
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said:
“James Zhong committed ligament fraud implicit a decennary agone erstwhile helium stole astir 50,000 Bitcoin from Silk Road. For astir 10 years, the whereabouts of this monolithic chunk of missing Bitcoin had ballooned into an implicit $3.3 cardinal mystery. Thanks to state-of-the-art cryptocurrency tracing and bully old-fashioned constabulary work, instrumentality enforcement located and recovered this awesome cache of transgression proceeds.”
Williams confirmed that immoderate of the Bitcoin was hidden successful a “circuit committee successful the bottommost of a popcorn tin,” according to the merchandise indicating that Zhong had hidden the crypto successful specified a manner.
The U.S. Government typically sells disconnected seized crypto successful batches meaning that implicit 50,000 BTC whitethorn deed the marketplace successful the coming weeks and months. It is chartless whether the latest cache of Bitcoin volition beryllium auctioned off, but it is communal signifier wrong the U.S. ineligible strategy to bash so.
The lawsuit against Zhong stated that helium created respective accounts connected the Silk Road marketplace earlier “triggering implicit 140 transactions successful accelerated succession successful bid to instrumentality Silk Road’s withdrawal processing strategy into releasing astir 50,000 Bitcoin.”
Zhong aboriginal received the aforesaid magnitude successful Bitcoin Cash pursuing the Bitcoin hard fork successful 2017, which helium besides converted into Bitcoin.
Following Zhong’s blameworthy plea connected Nov. 4, the justice “entered a Consent Preliminary Order of Forfeiture arsenic to Specific Property and Substitute Assets/Money Judgment forfeiting ZHONG’s involvement in” the Bitcoin on with different assets.
IRS agents recovered implicit 50,000 Bitcoin successful November 2021 from Zhong’s Georgia home. Zhong besides handed implicit further Bitcoin up until June of this year. The archetypal Bitcoin was recovered from an underground harmless and a single-board machine wrong a popcorn tin.
Zhong is facing up to 20 years successful situation for the crime.
The station Silk Road Bitcoin worthy $3.36B officially seized by DOJ aft 10 twelvemonth investigation appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.
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