Former UK National Crime Agency Officer Jailed for Stealing 50 Bitcoin in Silk Road 2.0 Investigation

On July 17 (UTC+8), a former UK National Crime Agency (NCA) officer was sentenced to prison for stealing 50 Bitcoin during the Silk Road 2.0 investigation. Silk Road 2.0 was a follow-up version of the original Silk Road, going live one month after the FBI shut down the original Silk Road and arrested its founder Ross Ulbricht in October 2013. It was shut down by the FBI after running for a year. Paul Chowles, an NCA operations officer who participated in the investigation, was responsible for extracting and analyzing device data from the co-founder of Silk Road 2.0 during law enforcement operations. At that time, 50 of the 97 Bitcoin seized were transferred in May 2017. These Bitcoin were subsequently processed through the cryptocurrency mixing service Bitcoin Fog, apparently to conceal their origin. Paul Chowles has pleaded guilty to charges of theft, transferring criminal property, and concealing criminal property and has been sentenced to more than five years in prison. The UK Crown Prosecution Service calculated that he illegally profited approximately £613,150 (USD $821,345). [Odaily Planet Daily]