On Monday, US authorities announced that they had seized bitcoins stolen from the drug-trafficking website Silk Road 10 years ago, worth $3.4 billion at the time of the seizure.
James Yung, 32, pleaded guilty on Friday to stealing more than fifty thousand bitcoins in September 2012.
Advanced technologies for tracking digital currencies
The virtual digital currencies were discovered during a search of Jung’s home in the US state of Georgia in November 2021. They were stored in devices hidden in a safe hidden by the accused himself under the floor and in a computer camouflaged in a can. popcorn under the covers in the bathroom cabinet.
“For almost a decade, questions surrounding the whereabouts of this large amount of previously undiscovered Bitcoin have been shrouded in mystery for more than $3.3 billion,” said Attorney General Damian Williams.
“Thanks to advanced crypto-tracking techniques and good old fashioned police work, security forces found this amazing cache and recovered the proceeds of criminal activities,” he said.
However, with the fall in the price of bitcoin, the value of the return after the transaction decreased, and in the last hours the value reached one billion dollars.
20 years in prison
The Public Prosecutor’s Office noted that Jung defrauded the Silk Road website by creating nine different accounts in 2012 and quickly carried out about 140 financial transactions, prompting the site’s system to pay about 50,000 bitcoins to his own account, which he quickly withdrew. transferred to another. addresses.
Chung faces up to 20 years in prison. His sentence will be determined in February.
The Silk Road website was launched in January 2011 and was used to sell many illegal goods, including $200 million worth of drugs worldwide, until the US Federal Police shut it down in October 2013.
The site’s creator, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced to life in prison in 2015.
This is the second largest seizure of bitcoins by US authorities since 94,000 bitcoins worth about $3.6 billion were seized from a New York couple during the Bitfinex hack in 2016.
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