NCA officer, who stolen Bitcoin from the crime network, has detained five and a half years

A former officer of the National Crime Agency, who stole 50 BTC from a crime network, which he examined, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison after his one-year deception was unveiled by forensic blockchain analysis.

Paul Chowles from Bristol was convicted at the Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday, after he had guilty because of theft, transferred criminal property and hid criminal property, as can be seen from an explanation of the Crown Concality Service.

Chowles was first accused of 77,000 US Bitcoins price Rose at over 120,000 US dollars.

The officer, who was considered “competent, technically observed and very consciously considered the dark web and cryptocurrencies”, used his position during an examination of the Dark Web Marketplace Silk Road 2.0 from 2017 to steal Bitcoin.

The accused was part of the NCA team, which examined Thomas White, who, according to the Silk Road, started the original location in 2013 in 2013.

White was later imprisoned for 64 months in April 2019. During the examination, Chowles took the lead in the analysis and extraction of crypto from whites confiscated devices.

Chowles handed over the stolen Bitcoin from White's “retirement letter” between May 6 and 7, 2017 to various accounts, broke the crypto into smaller quantities and led it via Bitcoin Fog, a crypto mixer service that was developed for the coverage of transaction routes.

“He used his position in this study by finding his own pockets and developing a plan that he believed that he would make sure that the suspicion would never fall on him,” said Alex Johnson, specialist for public prosecutor in the Special Crime Division of the Crown Concity Service.

Chowles converted the stolen crypto with Cryptopay- and Wirex debit cards, which carried out 279 transactions of $ 144,580 (£ 144,580) before it was caught.

The investigation showed that in his office he had notebooks with user names, passwords and statements about White's Crypto accounts.

The theft was initially attributed to White itself, whereby the NCA assumed that it had somehow accessed his wallet in custody.

However, Weiß consistently rejected the participation, and at the end of 2021 the missing Bitcoin had been dismissed as incomprehensible.

The Merseyside police broke the case with the help of the blockchain analysis company Chainalysis, which pursued the funds despite their passage through mixed services.

After five years of rest, the authorities have thrown back devices that contained private keys during a search for Chowles' residence of 2022.

Detective Chief Inspector John Black from the Force Intelligence Bureau of Merseyside said that the case was “in the most strong terms that nobody lies above the law”.

The investigation benefited from improved powers granted to the NCA in 2024 and enabled the agency to “confiscate, to dismiss and destroy crypto” that are used by criminals without requesting arrests.

According to the declaration, Chowles has been rejected from the NCA on July 11, and the Crown trial service will now initiate the seizure procedure in order to attribute the proceeds from crime.