Cops find device holding $3 BILLION in stolen Bitcoin stashed in a POPCORN TIN after 10-year investigation: Man, 32, is arrested for hacking 50,000 cryptocurrency from dark web after calling 911 on himself
- James Zhong, 32, of Gainesville, Georgia, pleaded guilty to wire fraud for the theft of $3.36 billion in Bitcoin from Silk Road dark web internet marketplace
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that the stolen Bitcoin was found stashed in a popcorn tin hidden in Zhong's home in November 2021
It's the Justice Department's second-largest seizure of cryptocurrency
Zhong is scheduled to be sentenced on February 22, 2023
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...The raid resulted in the second-largest seizure of cryptocurrency, following the $3.6 billion in stolen crypto linked to the 2016 hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex, but cryptocurrency has since dropped in value. ...
Zhong was living in Athens, Georgia in 2019 when he called police and reported that he had many assets stolen, including 'a lot of bitcoin,' which was apparently grabbed the attention of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) unit.
The cash was never recovered, nor was a suspect identified, but the burglary and amount of money reported stolen 'raised a red flag with the IRS,' Barnett said.
Following an investigation, a search warrant was served and the IRS-CI and Athens police department made an arrest in November of 2021.
Federal officials say the stolen Bitcoin was found when they served the search warrant at Zhong's Georgia home, solving a decade-long mystery.
The digital tokens were hidden in a 'single board computer' that was stashed inside a popcorn tin and stored in a bathroom close of Zhong's home.
Authorities also seized $662,000 in cash, physical Bitcoin coins, an 80 percent interest in a Memphis-based real estate investment company with substantial holdings, along with 11 1-ounce bars of silver and gold.
'James Zhong committed wire fraud over a decade ago when he stole approximately 50,000 Bitcoin from Silk Road,' U.S. attorney Damian Williams said in a statement this week.
'For almost 10 years, the whereabouts of this massive chunk of missing Bitcoin had ballooned into an over $3.3 billion mystery. 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.'
Prosecutors said Zhong executed a scheme to defraud 'Silk Road' dark web marketplace. They said he made nine accounts September 2012 and would then flood the site with withdrawal requests, which tricked the site into giving him multiples of what he had deposited.
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