- The Southern District of New York revealed on Monday that real estate developer James Zhong pleaded guilty to stealing more than 50,000 bitcoins from dark web marketplace Silk Road nearly a decade ago.
- Zhong, who is now facing a 20-year prison sentence, allegedly used nine anonymous accounts to trigger instant transactions on Silk Road to transfer bitcoin to his accounts with its withdrawal- Processing system can be deceived.
- The Justice Department recovered cryptocurrency-storing devices from Zhong’s home in November, when it was valued at $68,000 per coin, a total of $3.4 billion.
- The recovered cryptocurrency is reportedly the second largest that the government has seized in February after $3.6 billion recovered from a pair that allegedly hacked virtual currency exchange Bitfinex in 2016.
- “For nearly ten years, the whereabouts of this large chunk of missing bitcoins remained a mystery worth over $3.3 billion,” said US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams.
A real estate developer has pleaded guilty to stealing more than 50,000 bitcoins from dark web marketplace Silk Road nearly a decade ago.
On Monday, the Southern District of New York disclosed in a statement That the Justice Department last year recovered $3.4 billion worth of cryptocurrency from the alleged criminal, identified as James Zhong.
Court documents showed that 32-year-old Zhong on Friday confessed to committing wire fraud after illegally obtaining digital currency in September 2012. At that time, the cost of one bitcoin was around $13.50.
Federal agents found bitcoin on secure devices in an underground floor at Zhong’s residence in Gainesville, Georgia, during a raid in November last year, when the cryptocurrency was worth $68,000 per coin. The digital money was reportedly stored on a single-board computer hidden inside a popcorn tin and buried under blankets inside a bathroom closet.
The recovered crypto is reportedly the second largest that the government has confiscated. $3.6 billion recovery In February from a couple who allegedly hacked the virtual currency exchange Bitfinex in 2016.
US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams attributed the operation’s success to “state-of-the-art cryptocurrency tracing and good old-fashioned police work, law enforcement”.
“For nearly ten years, the whereabouts of this large chunk of missing bitcoins remained a mystery worth over $3.3 billion,” Williams is quoted as saying.
Zhong, who is now facing a 20-year prison sentence, allegedly used nine anonymous accounts to trigger instant transactions on Silk Road to transfer bitcoin to his accounts with its withdrawal- Processing system can be deceived.
speaking on behalf of zhongLawyer Michael Bachman said that Zhong “extremely regrets his conduct that happened 10 years ago when he was just 22 years old.”
“Given the increase in the value of bitcoins over the past decade, the value of the bitcoins they returned rapidly exceeded the value of the bitcoins they took,” Bachner said.
featured image via Michael Wuensch
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