Earlier this week, the Bitcoin community was shocked when a digital wallet containing about અ 1 billion in Bitcoin, believed to be ahead of the existing shuttered dark web drug marketplace Silk Road, was emptied by a stranger. Now, those responsible for laundering the funds have declared themselves: it was the US government.
The Justice Department announced Thursday that it has seized the contents of the vat as part of a civil seizure case targeting the Silk Road. The government said it recovered about 70,000 bitcoins with the help of an anonymous hacker, whose identity is known to the government but in court documents referred to only as “Personal X”.
“Personal X” allegedly hacked the Silk Road payment system in 2012 or 2013. The government says Silk Road producer Ross Ulbricht, who is currently serving a 40-year sentence in addition to a double life sentence for his role in the site, “threatened the man. X for the return of the cryptocurrency, ”but the unknown hacker refused. On November 3rd, Personal X agreed to confiscate Bitcoin to the American government and help transfer money. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.
In a press statement, U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson hailed the operation as a major success for the government. “The Silk Road was the most notorious criminal online crime market today.” “The successful action of the founder of the Silk Road in 2015 opened the question of billions of dollars. Where did the money go? Today’s possession complaint answers this open question. Criminal આવક 1 billion in criminal income is now in the possession of the United States. “
The Silk Road was “the most sophisticated and pervasive criminal market” on the Internet, said the Justice Department, which operated between 2011 and 2013 before being taken offline by the FBI. U.S. The government estimates that the website generates about 600,000 bitcoins in commissions during this period. About 175,000 of these cases were seized when Ulbright was arrested and the website was shut down in October 2013.
The Justice Department did not say what it plans to do with the 1 1 billion in newly seized bitcoins, but has auctioned off similar cryptocurrency moves in the past. In the report of reports, such sales are processed like other civil forfeiture The Wall Street Journal, With the profits held by the agency and added to its budget.
