Security News > 2022 > November > U.S. unmasks hacker who stole 50,000 bitcoins from Silk Road
The U.S. Department of Justice has announced today the conviction of James Zhong, a mysterious hacker who stole 50,000 bitcoins from the 'Silk Road' dark net marketplace.
Zhong pled guilty to money laundering crimes on Friday, November 4, for exploiting a "Withdrawal processing flaw" that allowed him to withdraw many times more Bitcoin than he deposited on the dark web marketplace.
As the defendant confessed, in September 2012, he stole 50,000 bitcoin from Silk Road by exploiting a flaw in the market's transaction system.
Zhong funded nine different accounts with an initial deposit of 200 to 2,000 bitcoin and then triggered 140 withdrawal transactions in rapid succession.
The Bitcoin Cash was converted into 3,500 Bitcoins, bringing Zhong's total to 53,500 Bitcoin linked to Silk Road. "For almost ten years, the whereabouts of this massive chunk of missing Bitcoin had ballooned into an over $3.3 billion mystery," commented U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
In March 2022, Zhong voluntarily surrendered an additional 825.4 Bitcoins to the authorities, and in May 2022, he gave up another 35.5 Bitcoin.