Zhong James (James Zhong)

Zhong James (James Zhong)

Biography

2022: Confiscation of $3.3 billion in the case of theft of 50 thousand bitcoins from the trading platform

In early November 2022, the US Department of Justice confiscated bitcoins worth more than $3.3 billion from hacker James Zhong, in 2012 he stole 50 thousand bitcoins from the anonymous Internet trading platform Silk Road.

James Zhong is accused of creating many accounts on Silk Road, replenishing them with small amounts of bitcoin, and then making several withdrawals at the same second. This deceived the Silk Road Internet platform system, forcing it to give him significantly more bitcoins than he contributed. Then James transferred bitcoin to various accounts, trying to hide his identity and the source of cryptocurrency, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

Agents of the US Internal Revenue Service issued a search warrant for his house in November 2021 and found most of the stolen bitcoins hidden in devices in a safe on the underground floor, the US Department of Justice said. Large amounts of bitcoin were also found on a single-board computer, which was hidden under blankets in a tin of popcorn stored in a closet in the bathroom, the release says.

James Zhong began cooperating with the United States authorities in March 2022, when he voluntarily surrendered another 3,000 bitcoins. Zhong pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He is due to be sentenced on February 22, 2023.

Silk Road was a black market that functioned on the dark web from 2011 to 2013. Its founder, Ross Ulbricht, was convicted in 2015 of seven charges related to the internet site. The charges included conspiracy to traffic drugs, money laundering and conspiracy to commit computer hacking. Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison.^[1]

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