The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has seized 50,676 BTC worth approximately $3.36 billion in its second largest crypto seizure in history.
as of monday Press releaseThe billion-dollar seizure comes from a man who “illegally obtained” darkweb marketplaces from Silk Road a decade ago. James Zhong, who was accused of committing wire fraud in September 2012 for illegally receiving 50,000 BTC, pleaded guilty on Friday, the report said.
The DOJ said they discovered BTC stolen from Zhong during a search of his home in Gainesville, Georgia on November 9, 2021. “For almost ten years, the whereabouts of this large chunk of missing bitcoins had been more than $3.3 billion in mystery,” said US Attorney Damian Williams.
In addition to the BTC coins, law enforcement recovered $661,900 in cash, 25 Cassius coins of BTC, which are equivalent to the physical version of bitcoin and are worth approximately 174 BTC, an additional 11.116 BTC, and a handful of silver- and gold coins. colored bars.
Caesar was the largest cryptocurrency seizure by the DOJ at the time. However, it is now the department’s second biggest financial seizure since the beginning of February. seizure $3.6 billion in stolen cryptocurrency allegedly linked to the 2016 hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex.
“IRS-CI Special Agents are the best in the world at following money through cyberspace or wherever our financial investigations take us. We work at the U.S. Attorney’s Office to track down these criminals and bring them to justice. Will continue to work with partners,” said IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher.
Silk Road was an online black market where users could buy and sell illegal goods anonymously. It operates through the darknet, an anonymous network that can only be accessed through specialized software such as the Tor browser.
Continue Hacking Crypto Projects
Although law enforcement and blockchain analytic experts have been largely successful in tracking down and even recovering some stolen crypto assets, the platforms remain vulnerable to criminals.
as informed ofIn early October, major crypto exchange Binance suffered a $570 million hack after attackers were able to exploit a bug in its native blockchain, the BNB chain.
Similarly, a hacker or group of hackers found it Vulnerabilities in decentralized finance platform Ronin Network and the biggest hack ever stole more than $600 million worth of crypto assets. The private keys, which serve as passwords to protect the cryptocurrency funds in the wallets, were compromised.
More Read
Bitcoin Crypto Related Post
