Silk Road has been a major platform through which illegal items and services could be procured. Users could shop there on the dark web, anonymously. Under these conditions, the platform could not use traditional banking methods. It had therefore decided to authorize payments in bitcoins. Eventually, US authorities proceeded to close Silk Road. Then, on November 9, 2021, they raided the home of a man named James Zhong. Law enforcement managed to seize 50,676.178,518.97 BTC there. At the time, it was the largest crypto seizure by the US Department of Justice. James Zhong was charged with wire fraud committed in September 2012.
American authorities “will not stop following the money”
Today, the United States Department of Justice has published a statement announcing that the accused James Zhong pleaded guilty on Friday, November 4, 2022. “James Zhong committed wire fraud over a decade ago when he Fly about 50,000 bitcoins on Silk Road. For nearly a decade, the whereabouts of this massive amount of missing bitcoin turned into a $3.3 billion+ mystery.“said US Attorney Damian Williams.
According to Williams, law enforcement had to conduct an advanced search to successfully track down the cryptos. The prosecutor pointed out:This case shows we won’t stop following the money, no matter how cleverly hidden, even to a circuit board in the bottom of a popcorn box.“.
The Sophisticated Scheme Used to Commit Crypto Fraud
According to Tyler Hatcher, the Special Agent in Charge of the IRS-CI, Zhong stole the bitcoins on Silk Road through a sophisticated scheme. Likewise, he made a multitude of complex transactions to hide his loot.
“IRS-CI Special Agents are the best in the world at tracking money in cyberspace or wherever our financial investigations take us. We will continue to work with our partners at the U.S. Attorney’s Office to track down these criminals and bring them to justice.“, specified Tyler Hatcher.
James Zhong has admitted committing wire fraud by illegally acquiring more than 50,676 bitcoins on Silk Road. The funds were found in November 2021 in devices that were at the defendant’s home.
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