A former National Crime Agency officer was punished in prison for stealing 50 Bitcoin-now worth $ 5.9 million-obtained from co-founder of defunct online Black Market Silk Road 2.0.
The Crown Prosecutor Service Says On Wednesday Paul Chowles, an ex-operation official with the National Crime Agency part of a team Investigating Silk Road and Silk Road 2.0, was punished by five-and-a-half-year imprisonment for stealing 50 bitcoin (Btc).
In May, Chowles apologized for robbery charges, transferring criminal ownership, and storing criminal ownership.
Silk Road 2.0 was an alternative to the original Silk Road and spun a month after the FBI dropped the online black market and arrested its founder, Ross Ulbricht, in October 2013. It lasted a year until it was closed by the FBI.
Chowles tried to cover tracks with crypto mixers
Chowles led the extraction and evaluation of data from devices owned by Silk Road 2.0 co-founder, Thomas White.
The NCA took 97 Bitcoin from White when he was arrested in November 2014, but 50 BTC – worth a total of $ 79,000 in time – was moved from his purse in May 2017 to another address.
Bitcoin is then sent by Crypto mixing service Bitcoin fog in a bright attempt to hide its origins.
Chainalysis Says Its tools have helped acknowledge that some of the funds are converted to cash in exchanges or placed on Crypto debit cards enabledallowing them to be more easily spent.
“Inside the NCA, Paul Chowles is considered a person with competent, technological thinking and very aware of dark web and cryptocurrencies,” said CPS Special Crime Division Specialist prosecutor Alex Johnson.
“He took advantage of his position working on this investigation by lining his own pocket while creating a plan that he believed to ensure that suspicion would never fall for him,” Johnson said.
Silk Road 2.0 co-founder alerted police to theft of Bitcoin
The CPS said the National Crime Agency Investigation team assumes that White used his skills to access his purse and move Bitcoin, and wrote it as unreliable.
However, White told the police that someone else had moved Bitcoin and said he knew it had to be a man from within the NCA, as it was the only authority that had keys to his crypto purse.
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Merseyside police officers met with the NCA, a meeting attended by Chowles, to enter his investigation into White. Police launched an investigation into the stolen bitcoin and eventually Chowles arrested.
Chowles keeps notes of Crypto’s accounts in White’s crypto
Police have found a phone linking Chowles to an account used to move Bitcoin, which also has an Internet search history for a crypto exchange, according to CPS.
“Many notebooks have also been discovered in the Chowles office, which contains usernames, passwords, and statements related to white cryptocurrency accounts,” the agency added.
Chowles used two crypto debit cards to spend about 109,425 British pounds ($ 146,580), but CPS calculated that he benefited from financially in the tone of nearly 613,150 British pounds ($ 821,345).
The CPS said it would continue the proceedings of the confiscation against Chowles.
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