US court seizes 3.3 billion in bitcoins, partly hidden in popcorn can | Abroad

Ten years ago, James Zhong hacked into the Silk Road website, an online black market that sold illegal drugs, among other things. Zhong managed to transfer funds from Silk Road to his own accounts. The dark web site was shut down by the FBI in 2013. Zhong’s loot is still worth about 1.1 billion dollars (about the same amount of euros).

Last November, agents of the US Internal Revenue Service searched James Zhong’s home in Gainesville, Georgia. They found 50,676 bitcoin, the second-largest catch ever in the US. Some of the stolen crypto coins were found on a small computer hidden in a popcorn box in a bathroom cabinet. Bitcoins were also found on hard drives and other data carriers in a safe under the floor. “For nearly a decade, this was a mystery worth more than $3.3 billion,” US attorney Damian Williams said of the “huge bulk of missing bitcoins” in Manhattan. “This case shows that we don’t stop tracking the money, no matter how skilfully hidden, even down to a circuit board in the bottom of a popcorn can.”

Sentenced on February 22, Zhong faces two years in prison, although the prosecutor can demand a longer sentence of up to 20 years. Zhong has already agreed to forfeit his share in a real estate company, as well as a sum of $661,900 and some other assets. According to his lawyer, Michael Bachner, Zhong has since returned almost all stolen bitcoins. “Mr. Zhong deeply regrets his behavior that occurred more than a decade ago when he was only 22,” Bachner said in a statement.

Last November this was the largest crypto seizure in US history, but in February of this year that record was broken. Then more than $4 billion worth of stolen bitcoins from the so-called Bitfinex hack of 2016 was seized.