A former investigator for the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has been ordered to return £1.81 million (approximately $2.4 million) for allegedly embezzling 50 BTC from a seized wallet during a dark web investigation, Decrypt reported. According to the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Paul Chowles from Bristol, who was responsible for cryptocurrency analysis and extraction from seized devices for the Silk Road 2.0 investigation team, transferred 50 BTC from a seized wallet to his own address in May 2017. At the time, the value of the BTC was approximately £60,000 ($77,000). Chowles divided the stolen BTC into small amounts, transferred them through the mixing service Bitcoin Fog, and then cashed them out using Cryptopay and Wirex debit cards. The related transactions totaled 279 cases, amounting to £144,580. Chowles admitted to charges of theft and transferring/concealing criminal proceeds and was sentenced to 5 years and 6 months in prison in July 2025.
