DOJ Files Complaint to Forfeit 69,370 Bitcoin
The Department of Justice filed a civil complaint to forfeit 69,370 Bitcoin linked to the Silk Road.
A few days ago, the blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace spotted two transactions sent from Bitcoin addresses associated with the Silk Road marketplace. On November 5, 2020, the U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of California announced the filing of a civil complaint to forfeit thousands of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, and Bitcoin SV. Law enforcement seized the Bitcoin on November 3.
More than a billion dollars in cryptocurrency
The civil complaint alleges that an individual identified by law enforcement had hacked Silk Road and diverted funds from the market to his own Bitcoin address.
According to an investigation conducted by the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, Individual X was the individual who moved the cryptocurrency from Silk Road. According to the investigation, Individual X was able to hack into Silk Road and gain unauthorized and illegal access to Silk Road and thereby steal the illicit cryptocurrency from Silk Road and move it into wallets that individual X controlled.
According to the investigation, Ulbricht became aware of Individual X’s online identity and threatened Individual X for return of the cryptocurrency to Ulbricht. Individual X did not return the cryptocurrency but kept it and did not spend it.
On November 3, 2020, Individual X signed a Consent and Agreement to Forfeiture with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of California. In the agreement, the individual consented to the forfeiture of the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to the United States government. The Department of Justice seized the coins later that day.