Man who hid US$3.4 billion in stolen bitcoin inside popcorn tin and underground safe gets year in jail
- James Zhong stole more than 50,000 bitcoin from the Silk Road dark web marketplace in 2012
- US authorities seized the digital currency during a raid on Zhong’s Georgia home two years ago
A man who stored billions of dollars worth of stolen cryptocurrency in an underground safe – and a Cheetos popcorn tin – was sentenced on Friday to a year and a day in prison.
According to federal prosecutors, James Zhong, 32, stole more than 50,000 bitcoin from Silk Road, a marketplace on the so-called “dark web” where users can buy anything from pornography to illicit drugs.
Its founder, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced in 2015 to life in prison without the possibility of parole after he was convicted of drug trafficking, money laundering, and hacking, among other charges.
Zhong was able to steal from the marketplace by creating multiple accounts and tricking Silk Road into releasing the bitcoin to his accounts, according to the Department of Justice. He never actually bought or sold anything on the website, per a DOJ statement.
“Back in 2012, James Zhong committed wire fraud by stealing 50,000 bitcoin from Silk Road, and for the next 10 years, he managed to conceal what he had done and how he obtained his fortune,” US lawyer Damian Williams said in the statement.
But in November 2021, US authorities obtained a search warrant to search his home in Gainesville, Georgia. There investigators recovered more than 50,000 bitcoin, split between “an underground floor safe and on a single-board computer that was submerged under blankets in a popcorn tin stored in a bathroom closet.”
Authorities also recovered at Zhong’s home more than US$660,000 in cash, as well as silver and gold bars.