Crackdown with Knowledge
The United States Department of Justice has confirmed that it has seized cryptocurrency with a total value of $3.36 billion. This is also connected to the robbery that occurred on Silk Road.
The Department of Defense stated that in November of 2021, law enforcement agents conducted a search of Zhong's residence in Georgia. During the raid, it was alleged that they were able to take a quantity of bitcoins substantially more than 50,000. At that time, it had a value that was greater than $3.36 billion.
It was further explained that at the time, it was the largest crypto seizure in the history of the Department. However, at the present time it has the position of second largest.
Zhong had over 3,500 BTC stored in various exchanges, in addition to more than 50,000 BCH that he had acquired following the Bitcoin hard fork in 2017. It is said that he conducted his currency conversions using an outside cryptocurrency exchange.
Ripple Labs has received support from the Blockchain Association in its ongoing legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Zhong began to voluntarily hand over additional Bitcoin in addition to the Bitcoin that was confiscated from his house. Since March, the DOJ has stated that he has voluntarily given up more than one thousand BTC at this point.
The Department of Justice has stated that the government's goal is to completely seize and forfeit well over 51,000 BTC belonging to Zhong. At the time that this report was written, the price of one Bitcoin was $19,714. As a result, the government is asking for more than one billion dollars.
Final Forfeitures
Zhong was the mastermind behind a fraudulent scheme that took place on the Silk Road marketplace in September of 2012. According to the Department of Justice, he then proceeded to withdraw from the market more Bitcoin than he had initially invested.
In order to provide further details, the Department provided an example. According to the information provided, Zhong placed 500 BTC into his Silk Road account on September 19, 2012. But immediately after that, he withdrew a total of 500 BTC using five separate transactions just a few seconds later. As a direct result of this, he was successful in stealing 2,000 BTC.
