Well-hidden loot
The virtual currencies were recovered during a search of his home in Georgia in November 2021. They were stored on devices hidden in a safe hidden under a floor and on a card computer unique camouflaged in a metal popcorn box under blankets in a bathroom closet.
“In nearly a decade, questions surrounding the whereabouts of this huge amount of unfindable bitcoins have swelled (to become) a mystery to over $3.3 billion,” said the attorney Damian Williams, in a statement. “Using cutting-edge cryptocurrency tracking technology and good old-fashioned law enforcement, law enforcement has located and recovered this impressive cache of criminal proceeds,” he said. -he adds. However, the value of the loot has decreased since the operation with the fall in the price of bitcoin, and is, during Monday, at just over 1 billion dollars.
According to the prosecutor’s office, James Zhong tricked Silk Road in 2012 by creating nine different accounts and quickly performing around 140 transactions in order to trick the site’s system into paying him around 50,000 bitcoins, which were in turn quickly transferred to other other addresses. He faces 20 years in prison. His sentence will be set in February.