Silk Road Thief Pleads Guilty to $3.4bn Raid

The US authorities are claiming a 10-calendar year-outdated mystery has been solved right after a male pleaded responsible to the theft of 50,000 Bitcoin from infamous dark web website Silk Highway.

Officers seized just above 50,676 of the electronic forex, valued at the time at approximately $3.4bn, again in November 2021, when they raided the Gainesville, Georgia residence of James Zhong.

This, the most significant crypto seizure in the background of US legislation enforcement, came alongside the capture by investigators of $661,900 in funds, Zhong’s 80% interest in Memphis-dependent actual estate company RE&D Investments, and numerous gold and silver bars.

Zhong, 32, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud relationship back again to 2012.

His rip-off was easy: acquire benefit of a bug in the site’s escrow performance, which enabled him to withdraw funds various moments in rapid succession.

Zhong by no means basically mentioned merchandise for sale on the Silk Highway website, he simply deposited among 200 and 2000 bitcoin across nine accounts and then activated about 140 transactions in rapid succession to release the 50,000+ in Bitcoin, according to the Division of Justice (DoJ).

He quickly attempted to launder the stolen cash by sending them to a collection of other addresses beneath his command.

5 decades immediately after the first criminal offense, Zhong got lucky soon after Bitcoin “hard-forked,” leaving him with an added 50,000 in Bitcoin Hard cash which he converted into 3,500 Bitcoin.

“For virtually 10 a long time, the whereabouts of this substantial chunk of lacking Bitcoin experienced ballooned into an above $3.3 billion secret,” mentioned US legal professional, Damian Williams

“Thanks to point out-of-the-artwork cryptocurrency tracing and very good old-fashioned police perform, regulation enforcement found and recovered this amazing cache of criminal offense proceeds.  This scenario exhibits that we will not quit subsequent the funds, no make any difference how expertly hidden, even to a circuit board in the base of a popcorn tin.”

Zhong is struggling with a utmost sentence of 20 yrs in prison.

Some parts of this article are sourced from:
www.infosecurity-journal.com