The United States Department of Justice was able to confiscate more than $3 billion in Bitcoin from a hacker.
What
Known
In early autumn 2012, American James Zhong(James Zhong) was able to illegally obtain cryptocurrency from the Silk Road site on the darknet. To do this, he created about a dozen accounts and opened deposits on them in the amount of 200-2000 BTC. The scammer then launched 140 transactions in quick succession, allowing him to trick the processing system and withdraw 50,676 BTC.
During the raid on November 9, 2021, law enforcementseized precious metals and approximately $600,000 in cash from the home of James Zhong. Most of the cryptocurrency was found thanks to private keys in an underground safe and on a single board computer. At that time, the value of 50,676 BTC was $3.36 billion. Now at a price of $20,500 per coin, that’s just over $1 billion.
James Zhong admitted that he was engaged in fraud using electronic means of communication. Now he faces up to 20 years in prison. The verdict will be handed down by the court on February 22, 2023.