Georgia Man Imprisoned for Defrauding Silk Road

~2 min read | Published on 2023-04-16, tagged FraudSentenced using 325 words.

A Georgia man who stole bitcoins worth billions of dollars from the now-defunct Silk Road dark web marketplace and stored it in a single-board computer hidden in a popcorn tin has been imprisoned.

James Zhong


According to a press release by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, 32-year-old James Zhong of Georgia stole approximately 50,000 bitcoin from Silk Road in 2012, by making multiple fraudulent withdrawals from the market.
Zhong reportedly executed the fraud scheme by creating nine accounts on the market in September 2012. He would then make Bitcoin deposits into the accounts followed by successive withdrawals whose total exceeded his initial deposits.
In one such case on September 19, 2012, ZHONG allegedly deposited 500 Bitcoin into a Silk Road account he had created. He then made five withdrawals of 500 Bitcoin each from the account within one second. In total, Zhong made approximately 140 similar transactions and was able to withdraw a total of approximately 50,000 bitcoin.
In 2017 he received a total of 50,000 Bitcoin Cash into the wallets as a result of the Bitcoin hard fork. He later swapped the Bitcoin Cash into approximately 3,500 Bitcoin.
Close to a decade later, investigators executed a search warrant at Zhong's residence on November 9, 2021. The investigators found and seized approximately 50,500 Bitcoin worth over $3 billion at the time. They also recovered and seized $661,900 in cash, 25 Casascius coins, silver bars, gold bars, and one gold coin.

The seizied items


He later surrendered a total of approximately 1,004 bitcoin in March, April, May, and June 2022.

The popcorn container and single board computer


Zhong pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud on November 4, 2022.
In total, Zhong was ordered to forfeit approximately 51,680.32 bitcoin worth over $1.5 billion. He was also ordered to forfeit the cash and other assets seized from his residence.
United States District Judge Paul G. Gardephe sentenced him to one year and one day in federal prison on April 14, 2023.

Comments (32)


2U5iva2023-04-16
efb75a6e

What a pimp

SexyWaffle2023-04-16
18f7f6dd

Again, the government is fake and gay. Just another fucking mafia.

sussypancake2023-04-16
d09a2e80

i enjoyed this comment

GangBang2023-04-20
45622302

i also enjoyed myself while reading this comment

wrathfulhell2023-04-22
90a55852

this made me laugh

Anon04162023-04-16
d058435e

These greedy jews make up anything to take money out of your pocket. One minute BTC isn't a legitimate currency the next they're charging you for wire fraud. How is it wire fraud if it isn't "money"

FuckNiggers2023-04-17
486cd891

Because kikes, bureaucrats, and federalist bootlickers want to control everything everyone does. I say there should be a mass hacking campaign against alphabet boys.

fuckthefeds2023-04-21
0dacc676

This man said it 100%, but nah mane it ain't Jews just white folks in general calling the shots

annenwards2023-04-30
955221d0

this is a convo i want to be a part of - Jews are the problem whites typically view usery as a crime - Jews owned significantly more slaves than american whites and were said to be more cruel - but the Jews that run hollywood and the government want blacks & whites to fight eachother so they can plunder our wealth. Jews do this in every country theyve been kicked out of - they try to get rid of all ethnic or national or religious identities for everyone accept themselves

annenwards2023-04-30
650289c7

BTC is the only opt-out of the jewish monetary scheme

Circumsized D2023-06-08
bba75544

LOL I'm Jewish and unfortunately not rich and not in on this whole conspiracy, plz tell me whom to contact to make sure they don't leave me out

nana2023-04-16
cc6ac947

wow fuck me god

HowDidTheyGetHIM?2023-04-16
8ce31490

I would love to know how they caught him... and, why he just sat there in the US with $1.5 billion in assets. Possibly loose lips? Who the fuck knows. Some advice, if you sit on $1.5 billion of what could be seen as ill gotten gains, get out of the country, convert all your shit to Monero then figure out how the fuck to keep quiet and live a nice life with a nice wife.

James Zhong2023-04-17
d631e21a

This will give you a bit of insight into why he was caught =)) (CLEARNET) https://darknetlive.com/post/georgia-man-imprisoned-for-defrauding-silk-road-21f18923 Also they used the wrong man in the photo the guys chinese

done2023-04-28
2c4359ca

Monero ???

Fake news2023-04-17
2b2e1383

This is impossible. Imagine you make a withdraw and market sends you 10000x times you wanted. dude did double click.. That is it. so you get the coins. HOW is it a crime? This must be fake. because no crime was comited.

quack2023-04-17
4782fa09

Its kinda how if you could technically withdraw 10000x out of an ATM than you have in your account and you go ahead and do it, its a crime. Its kinda dumb in this case since he was withdrawing other peoples drug money but who cares its 1.5b.

sheeit2023-04-18
d5d9b098

its called exploiting a race condition stupid faggot. do some research or maybe you cant because youre stuck with low iq nigger brain

framed by the wife2023-04-17
e31e25e9

A quiet wife would be advantageous

Ed Sheeran Fan2023-04-17
02b4e4d5

Ed Sheeran's btc wallet doesn't work like it use to before.

quack2023-04-17
caadb5e8

Without more info i think he probably withdrew to a kyc exchange at some point or whatever mixer he might as used got backtraced now the gov has better tools. Seems to be how they are catching most people nowadays. Prison sentence isnt horrible but losing 1.5b will be the real life sentence here.

lol42023-04-20
43c2755a

you really think he didnt plan for this ? lol im sure he has more than one wallet

tony2023-04-17
398ae27d

use monero and memorize the seed phrase?

not james2023-04-18
c7b6fb4d

that’s not james zhong

bad goy2023-04-18
050b4f1e

gold is based

FixThePhoto2023-04-18
3f5bbf35

This not a picture of Zhong. Zhong is a chinese immigrant. He's a fat chinese dude. Not this scandinavian looking guy.Fix the photo.

Boneit2023-04-20
2bea48e8

Wow really

Seize this 🖕2023-04-29
46542bb1

He used binance account which led them back to him what an idiot

Seize this 🖕2023-04-29
199c7be3

Also didn’t help he called the cops when someone stole 400,000$ and a thumb drive which raised a red flag with the IRS? Seriously what a retard he deserved it after that you steal billions and you call the ops and put yourself in the IRS crosshairs, it’s like calling the cops when you get robbed for your drugs ..

annenwards2023-04-30
5cef1990

absolute diamond hands

sicko2023-09-05
c2e463b7

Fuckin shit

MMMM2023-09-11
22ec0f4d

CALL HIM FOR MONERO CALLS