Former UK National Crime Agency official jailed for stealing 50 bitcoins in Silk Road 2.0 investigation

A former National Crime Agency (NCA) officer in the UK has been jailed for stealing 50 bitcoins in the Silk Road 2.0 investigation. Silk Road 2.0, a follow-up to the original Silk Road, went live a month after the FBI shut down the original Silk Road in October 2013 and arrested its founder, Ross Ulbricht, and was shut down by the FBI after a year of operation. Paul Chowles, an NCA operations officer who was involved in the investigation, was responsible for extracting and analyzing device data from the Silk Road 2.0 co-founder during the law enforcement operation when 50 of the 97 bitcoins seized were transferred in May 2017, which were then processed through the cryptocurrency mixing service Bitcoin Fog, apparently to disguise their origin. Paul Chowles has now pleaded guilty to charges of theft, transfer of criminal property and concealment of criminal property and was sentenced to more than five years in prison. The Crown Prosecution Service calculates that he made an illegal profit of approximately 613,150 pounds (821,345 dollars).