Former NCA official in the UK sentenced for stealing $5.9 million in Bitcoin

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the UK Crown Prosecution Service stated that former National Crime Agency (NCA) officer Paul Chowles has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for stealing and spending 50 bitcoins (currently worth about $5.9 million) during the investigation of "Silk Road 2.0."

Silk Road 2.0 is a successor to the original Silk Road, which went online a month after the FBI shut down the original Silk Road and arrested its founder Ross Ulbricht in October 2013, and was closed by the FBI after operating for a year.

The bitcoins were originally assets seized from co-founder Thomas White's device. Chowles took advantage of his position to launder money through the cryptocurrency mixing service Bitcoin Fog and spent over $140,000 using a crypto debit card. Key evidence was found on his phone and in his notes, and the Crown Prosecution Service is moving forward with the confiscation process.