The silver box looks modest. But it’s part of an incredible find by US authorities. It’s a bottom vault. Inside: the fat booty of a crypto scammer. In the house of Jason Z.* (32) the researchers found a total of $3.4 billion worth of bitcoins. In addition to the data carriers in the safe that was hidden under the floor, the bitcoins lay dormant on data carriers that were distributed throughout the house and on a computer. Unbelievable: A data carrier was hidden in a popcorn can.
The American authorities did the mega evening with the fraudster and real estate entrepreneur in November 2021, the federal prosecutor announced on Monday in New York. In addition to the bitcoins, officials also discovered $661,900 in cash, eight silver bars and 100 grams of gold.
Z. stole the bitcoins ten years ago from the portal “Silk Road”, which has been closed since 2013. “Silk Road” belonged to the so-called dark web, a hidden part of the internet often used for illegal activities. Its founder is Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced in 2015 to a double life sentence plus 40 years.
He used lightning fast transactions for his scam
According to investigators, the 32-year-old pleaded guilty last Friday to illegally acquiring more than $50,000 worth of bitcoins in September 2012. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Z. had ripped off “Silk Road” with lightning-fast transactions from about nine anonymous accounts. He found a loophole in the system by transferring the bitcoins and then making multiple requests within a second to be able to withdraw the money. It was not checked whether the money was available at all, allowing him to immediately transfer larger amounts of Bitcoins.
The numbers varied between 500 and 3000 bitcoins. At that time, a bitcoin was worth about ten dollars. The Bitcoins that he got his hands on in this way increased enormously in value over the years. They were discovered during a raid on various devices at his home in Gainesville, Georgia.
US authorities found $3.6 billion from a married couple
According to the American magazine “Wired”, he never touched this money. Presumably because he feared that turning the bitcoins into dollars could lead authorities on his trail. But there’s no point in waiting for him. Police caught up with him through “modern cryptocurrency tracking,” as US authorities have explained.
The bitcoins found at Z. are the second largest amount of cryptocurrency that US authorities have seized to date. Last February, authorities seized a record $3.6 billion worth of stolen bitcoin from a couple in New York. (lrc/AFP)
* Name known