Bitcoin Thief Once Worth $3.4 Billion Gets Year in Prison
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A Georgia man who stole more than 50,000 Bitcoin from the Silk Road drug-trafficking site before his cache hit $3.35 billion in value was ordered to serve a year and a day in prison.James Zhong, 32, was sentenced Friday in New York federal court, where he pleaded guilty to wire fraud last year. At the time of the heist in 2012, the Bitcoin was worth $620,000. When authorities seized devices holding the stolen Bitcoin in November 2021, its value had exploded, making it the second-largest financial seizure in US history. Before he was caught, Zhong spent $16 million of the proceeds on real estate investments, luxury hotels, nightclubs and Lamborghinis, prosecutors said. The value of the Bitcoin seized is now about $1.56 billion. US District Judge Paul Gardephe cited the “highly sop...