UK prosecutors win confiscation order against former NCA officer over stolen Bitcoin

UK prosecutors have obtained a confiscation order against former National Crime Agency officer Paul Chowles, according to Decrypt. The Crown Prosecution Service said the order was granted under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and requires Chowles, a 44-year-old from Bristol, to repay £1,810,678.93, or about $2.4 million. The case centers on 50 BTC that Chowles took in 2017, when the holdings were worth about £60,000, roughly $77,000. Authorities said 30 of those coins have since been recovered, and attributed the gap between the original value and the repayment figure to Bitcoin’s appreciation since 2017. Chowles had worked on the NCA investigation into dark web marketplace Silk Road 2, where he analyzed devices and extracted cryptocurrency linked to the case. Prosecutors said he moved the 50 BTC from a reserve wallet belonging to Thomas White over two days in May 2017, broke the funds into smaller amounts, routed them through Bitcoin mixer Bitcoin Fog, and cashed out £144,580 across 279 transactions using Cryptopay and Wirex debit cards. The theft had long been blamed on White, who denied responsibility. By late 2021, the missing Bitcoin was classified as untraceable. A 2022 search of Chowles’ home uncovered a device containing private keys, and Merseyside Police traced the funds with help from Chainalysis.