The Department of Justice announced it seized more than $3 billion worth of bitcoin from a man who stole it from the dark web’s Silk Road more than a decade ago.
Federal agents discovered 50,491 bitcoin on drives hidden inside a popcorn tin and an underground safe while conducting a search warrant at the house of James Zhong of Georgia in November of last year. It was the second-largest cryptocurrency seizure by the DOJ.
On Friday, Zhong, 32, pleaded guilty to scamming the Silk Road, a now-defunct website located on the dark web where users could purchase illicit goods and services using bitcoin, in September 2012.
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He was able to scam Silk Road out of the cryptocurrency, which was used as currency on the site, by depositing bitcoin into multiple fraud accounts registered with the marketplace and then triggering more than 100 withdrawal transactions in quick succession in order to trick Silk Road’s withdrawal-processing system into releasing tens of thousands of bitcoins, according to the DOJ.
“Mr. Zhong executed a sophisticated scheme designed to steal bitcoin from the notorious Silk Road Marketplace. Once he was successful in his heist, he attempted to hide his spoils through a series of complex transactions which he hoped would be enhanced as he hid behind the mystery of the ‘darknet,’” said…
