A historical National Crime Agency officer who stole 50 BTC from a crime community he modified into once investigating has been sentenced to 5 and a half of years in penal advanced after his yr-long deception modified into once revealed through forensic blockchain diagnosis.
Paul Chowles from Bristol modified into once sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to theft, transferring criminal property, and concealing criminal property, per a Crown Prosecution Provider assertion.
Chowles modified into once first charged in March 2025 with 15 counts of criminal offenses associated to the theft of fifty BTC—which at the time of the theft modified into once price $77,000 (£60,000), but has since risen to $5.6 million, as Bitcoin’s trace rose to over $120k.
The officer, who modified into once idea of as “competent, technically minded and extremely attentive to the dark web and cryptocurrencies,” exploited his set at some level of a 2017 investigation into the dark web marketplace Silk Twin carriageway 2.0 to take Bitcoin.
The accused modified into once piece of the NCA personnel investigating Thomas White, who had launched Silk Twin carriageway 2.0 lower than a month after the FBI shut down the customary set in 2013, per the assertion.
White modified into once because of the this fact jailed for 64 months in April 2019. At some stage in the investigation, Chowles took the lead in analyzing and extracting crypto from White’s seized units.
Chowles transferred the stolen Bitcoin from White’s “retirement wallet” to diverse accounts between May possibly simply 6-7, 2017, breaking down the crypto into smaller amounts and routing it through Bitcoin Fog, a crypto mixer service designed to obscure transaction trails.
“He took fair accurate thing about his set engaged on this investigation by lining his have pockets while devising a idea that he believed would salvage certain that that suspicion would never plunge upon him,” talked about Alex Johnson, Specialist Prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Provider’s Special Crime Division.
Chowles converted the stolen crypto utilizing Cryptopay and Wirex debit cards, making 279 transactions totaling $144,580 (£144,580) sooner than being caught.
The investigation revealed he had notebooks in his set of job containing usernames, passwords, and statements relating to to White’s crypto accounts.
The theft modified into once firstly attributed to White himself, with the NCA assuming he had one contrivance or the opposite accessed his wallet while in custody.
Nonetheless, White consistently denied involvement, and by unhurried 2021, the missing Bitcoin had been written off as untraceable.
Merseyside Police cracked the case with the assistance of blockchain diagnosis agency Chainalysis, which traced the funds no subject their passage through mixing companies and products.
After 5 years of dormancy, authorities recovered units containing non-public keys at some level of a 2022 search of Chowles’ situation.
Detective Chief Inspector John Gloomy from Merseyside Police’s Force Intelligence Bureau talked about the case confirmed “in the starkest phrases that no-one is above the law.”
The investigation benefited from enhanced powers granted to the NCA in 2024, permitting the agency to “clutch, freeze and assassinate” crypto feeble by criminals without requiring arrests.
Chowles has since been brushed other than the NCA on July 11, per the assertion, and the Crown Prosecution Provider will now pursue confiscation proceedings to recover the proceeds of crime.
