IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher said:
...
IRS-CI Special Agents are the best in the world at following the money through cyberspace or wherever our financial investigations lead us.
So Bitcoin IS money.
Thank you for admit this, yeah!
Stealing bitcoin from an illegal site still constitutes as wire fraud... Really though they just wanted to seize this so they can file the motion to steal it back from Ross.
ZHONG thereafter exchanged through an overseas cryptocurrency exchange all of the BCH Crime Proceeds for additional Bitcoin, amounting to approximately 3,500 Bitcoin of additional crime proceeds. Collectively, by the last quarter of 2017, ZHONG thus possessed approximately 53,500 Bitcoin of total crime proceeds (the “Crime Proceeds”).
As in every case where somebody gets busted, Zhong deanonymized himself by sending coin to an exchange. Exchanges are giant honeypots for the feds to use, because they are KYC touch points that serve to anchor the artifacts of their heuristical analysis (unproveable suspicion) into solidly identifying data. It's like when James Bourne shows up at the embassy with his real passport.
Watch them just sit on these forever, rather than officially declaring that BTC is now being held by the Treasury (just like some gold is held in a bullion depository).
Specifically, law enforcement located 50,491.06251844 Bitcoin of the approximately 53,500 Bitcoin Crime Proceeds (a) in an underground floor safe; and (b) on a single-board computer that was submerged under blankets in a popcorn tin stored in a bathroom closet. In addition, law enforcement recovered $661,900 in cash, 25 Casascius coins (physical bitcoin) with an approximate value of 174 Bitcoin, 11.1160005300044 additional Bitcoin, and four one-ounce silver-colored bars, three one-ounce gold-colored bars, four 10-ounce silver-colored bars, and one gold-colored coin.
That's pretty interesting. i wish we had much more powerful tools with bigger sankeys to look at this stuff. What's going on? Is there some 4d chess or is this an idiotic attempt at obscuring?
My question, is what does the Attorney decide to do with newly acquired digital asset?
good question!
Gasp
So Bitcoin IS money. Thank you for admit this, yeah!
The detail how he got caught https://nitter.it/FractalEncrypt/status/1590004511015571456
Cool thread!
Stealing bitcoin from an illegal site still constitutes as wire fraud... Really though they just wanted to seize this so they can file the motion to steal it back from Ross.
Over 50K BTC and couldn't figure out some seed backups huh? Jeez...
Seed backups don't help when someone else has the seed. You need the other person to not have them ... which is way more difficult.
As in every case where somebody gets busted, Zhong deanonymized himself by sending coin to an exchange. Exchanges are giant honeypots for the feds to use, because they are KYC touch points that serve to anchor the artifacts of their heuristical analysis (unproveable suspicion) into solidly identifying data. It's like when James Bourne shows up at the embassy with his real passport.
Watch them just sit on these forever, rather than officially declaring that BTC is now being held by the Treasury (just like some gold is held in a bullion depository).
In the past they’ve auctioned coins at gsaauctions.gov
The legal entity which "holds" but not "legaly owns" them isn't the federal reserve tho... so who is "they"
What are they measuring here? Other cryptocurrencies? That's definitely way more precision than a satoshi.
Of cryptocurrency huh? I only see Bitcoin. Oh and precious metals as well.
Definitely a Bitcoin maxi. He even dumped his BCash available after it was created from the 2017 airdrop.
These shitcoiners man. Always tryna pretend like they're part of what Bitcoin is doing.
Free Ross Ulbricht. Sign the petition : https://www.change.org/p/clemency-for-ross-ulbricht-condemned-to-die-in-prison-for-an-e-commerce-website?hp=
Anyone got details on how they identified the physical location of this underground floor safe, obtained a warrant, etc? Was it via the BCH he sold?
Answered my own question!
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1549821/download
Check out page 17 for details about how they traced the transactions
bizarre on-chain activity by this guy... check this https://mempool.space/tx/481aa062147384e1511925f7b5bc1c22bdd0f6fdf1664ff2db134ef9b2263516
At first I though it was a whirlpool Tx0, but it's not.
That's pretty interesting. i wish we had much more powerful tools with bigger sankeys to look at this stuff. What's going on? Is there some 4d chess or is this an idiotic attempt at obscuring?
It could be they just wanted smaller UTXOs to work with. Something stupid like that.
Wow I want it too
Will they return it to the rightful owners or keep it?