Former UK National Crime Agency officer jailed for stealing 50 Bitcoins in Silk Road 2.0 investigation

Odaily News A former British National Crime Agency (NCA) officer has been jailed for stealing 50 bitcoins in the Silk Road 2.0 investigation. Silk Road 2.0 was a successor to the original Silk Road, launched a month after the FBI shut down the original Silk Road and arrested its founder Ross Ulbricht in October 2013, and was shut down by the FBI after a year of operation. Paul Chowles, an NCA operations officer who was involved in the investigation, was responsible for extracting and analyzing the device data of the Silk Road 2.0 co-founder during the law enforcement operation. 50 of the 97 bitcoins seized at the time were transferred in May 2017. These bitcoins were then processed through the cryptocurrency mixing service Bitcoin Fog, apparently to cover their origin. Paul Chowles has now pleaded guilty to charges of theft, transfer of criminal property and concealment of criminal property and has been sentenced to more than five years in prison. The British Crown Prosecution Service calculated that he made about 613,150 pounds ($821,345) from the illegal profits.