I hate when the government takes my 50K BTCs...

Discussion in 'Crypto Assets' started by Pekelo, Nov 7, 2022.

  1. Pekelo

    Pekelo

    ...from my underground safe:

    https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/p...billion-cryptocurrency-seizure-and-conviction

    TIL: Apparently, stealing from a criminal is still illegal.

    "In September 2012, ZHONG executed a scheme to defraud Silk Road of its money and property by (a) creating a string of approximately nine Silk Road accounts (the “Fraud Accounts”) in a manner designed to conceal his identity; (b) triggering over 140 transactions in rapid succession in order to trick Silk Road’s withdrawal-processing system into releasing approximately 50,000 Bitcoin from its Bitcoin-based payment system into ZHONG’s accounts;"

    "On November 9, 2021, pursuant to a judicially authorized premises search warrant of ZHONG’s Gainesville, Georgia, house, law enforcement seized approximately 50,676.17851897 Bitcoin, then valued at over $3.36 billion. This seizure was then the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice and today remains the Department’s second largest financial seizure ever."

    "Thanks to state-of-the-art cryptocurrency tracing and good old-fashioned police work, law enforcement located and recovered this impressive cache of crime proceeds. "
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2022
    swinging tick likes this.
  2. For the curious but lazy (that's me sometimes), the wire fraud resulted in theft of bitcoin worth about $500,000 at the time it occurred (Sept 2012) and $3.36B at the time of seizure (Nov 9, 2021).
     
    VicBee and johnarb like this.
  3. Pekelo

    Pekelo

    Yeah, that is down to 1 B now. It was seized almost at the ATH...
     
    Statistical Trader likes this.
  4. Hmm.... maybe we should monitor the timing of major law enforcement seizures to predict asset price peaks, LOL!
     
    spy likes this.
  5. Pekelo

    Pekelo

    “The stash of 50,676 Bitcoin was found hidden on various devices in a hacker's home in an underfloor safe and inside a popcorn tin.”

    "He could have been living on a yacht in the Mediterranean, doing whatever he wanted for the rest of his life. Instead he buried in it a basement in Georgia. Like, what the fuck?" --- exactly my thoughts
     
    nrstrader, VicBee and zghorner like this.
  6. zghorner

    zghorner

    you have to become a billionaire...to keep your billions. The popcorn tin is evidence that he was still operating on those hundredaire principles lol.
     
    VicBee likes this.
  7. VicBee

    VicBee

    With BTC you never quite know how much you stole!
     
    Statistical Trader likes this.
  8. Breaking: criminals still exist.
     
    Statistical Trader likes this.
  9. Pekelo

    Pekelo

    And they are most likely crypto exchanges or hackers. But since you didn't get the point of the thread, I will spell it out for you:

    As most claims about BTC, the "it is the safest thing from government confiscation" was also a lie as the example shows. Not to mention the fucker couldn't even use the fruit of his criminal activity, because it is not that easy to use the "anonymous" stolen coins, specially when it is that many.

    Anyhow, on my Ignore from now...