US is seeking a forfeiture order for more than $1 billion in Bitcoin stolen from the Silk Road online marketplace in 2012, according to federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
During a November 2021 search of James Zhong’s Gainesville, Georgia, home, law enforcement seized 50,000 Bitcoin, the second largest seizure in Department of Justice history. Zhong pled guilty to wire fraud on Friday, tricking Silk Road’s processing system into releasing funds into his accounts. Bitcoin was worth more than $3 billion at the time, but the cryptocurrency has since lost roughly two-thirds of its value. The US government seized Silk Road in 2013, describing the underground website as a massive illegal drug- and money-laundering marketplace.