Man gets jail time after feds find $3.4 billion in stolen bitcoin hidden inside box of Cheetos popcorn

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The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that the hacker responsible for breaching the Silk Road marketplace has been sentenced to one year in prison on wire fraud charges.

According to a statement released by US Attorney Damian Williams’ office, James Zhong stole more than 50,000 BTC/USD Bitcoins from the Silk Road dark web by creating multiple accounts and tricking Silk Road into posting Bitcoins on his accounts. Zhong claims to have never bought or sold anything on the Silk Road.

“In 2012, Zhong committed wire fraud by stealing 50,000 bitcoins from Silk Road, and for the next ten years successfully concealed what he had done and how he had obtained his fortune,” Williams said in a statement.

Authorities searched Zhong’s home in Gainesville, Georgia in November 2021 and recovered more than 50,000 bitcoins, split between “an underground safe and a single-board computer submerged under blankets in a popcorn box stored in a bathroom closet.

Also Read: Will Bitcoin Die With the Online Black Market ‘Silk Road’?

Law enforcement also recovered gold and silver bullion and more than $660,000 in cash.

According to the US Attorney’s Office, when the Bitcoin was seized it was valued at $3.4 billion. Today, he is worth more than $1.5 billion.

A photo shared by the DA’s office shows the crypto box was actually a large box of Cheetos.

For years, Silk Road operated as an online “darknet” black market. From around 2011 to 2013, it was used by drug traffickers and other illegal sellers to distribute massive amounts of illegal drugs and other illicit goods and services to buyers around the world. It has also been used to launder funds. In 2015, Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht was convicted by a unanimous jury and sentenced to life in prison.

Read next:Anthony Scaramucci says he’s more bullish than ever on Bitcoin: ‘Incredibly robust and oddly anti-fragile asset class’

Photo: Shutterstock

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