During the raid in James Zhong's home, authorities confiscated 50,502 BTC, $661,900 in cash, and 25 Casascius coins worth around 174 BTC.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced that it seized around 50,000 Bitcoins linked to a darknet market Silk Road.
According to the press release shared on November 7th, a whopping 50,676 Bitcoins (BTC) were confiscated from James Zhong, who pleaded guilty to committing wire fraud in September 2012. The press release noted that James Zhong faces up to 20 years in prison for his crimes.
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IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher, when talking about the case, noted:
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.’
Initially, to execute the fraud, Zhong allegedly created nine Silk Road accounts to conceal his true identity. Afterward, the man triggered over 140 transactions aiming to trick Silk Road’s withdrawal-processing system into releasing around 50,000 Bitcoin from Silk Road’s payment system to Zhong’s account.
The Attorney's Office noted that Zhong transferred obtained Bitcoin (BTC) to multiple addresses to conceal its identity and hide traces of the exploit.
During the raid at Zhong’s property, Internal Revenue Service agents found more than 50,491 BTC in the underground floor safe and “on a single-board computer that was submerged under blankets in a popcorn tin stored in a bathroom closet.” In addition, agents found $661,900 in cash, 11 BTC hidden separately, and 25 Casascius coins.
At the time Bitcoin (BTC) was confiscated, it was valued at $3.36 billion, while at the time of writing, its worth around $1.04 billion. It is the second largest cryptocurrency confiscation made by US authorities, the biggest being 70,000 Bitcoin (BTC) related to the crypto exchange Bitfinex hack.
It is worth noting that Silk Road was an online black market and the first modern darknet market operating between 2011 and 2013, allowing to pay using Bitcoin (BTC).
