Daily Management Review

US Department of Justice confiscates $1B worth of bitcoins from the Silk Road website


11/09/2020


The US Department of Justice withdrew more than $1 billion worth of Bitcoins from the Silk Road website, which was used for trafficking drug, arms and other illegal transactions and was closed in 2013.



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This was announced by David Anderson, California's Attorney for the Northern District. The Ministry of Justice has called it the largest confiscation of Bitcoins in its history. Now the American authorities have filed a lawsuit to officially confiscate these Bitcoins.

A few days ago, analytical company Elliptic, which specializes in blockchain and cryptocurrencies, reported the withdrawal of 69,400 bitcoins from Silk Road, which corresponds to more than $1 billion at the current rate. 

Silk Road was operating for about two years, after which it was closed down by the American authorities and its founder Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2015.

"Silk Road was the most famous criminal Internet trading platform of its time. The trial against the founder of Silk Road left the question of a billion dollars open. Where did the money go? The current confiscation suit answers this question at least in part. $1 billion of the criminal proceeds are now in US hands," said Mr. Anderson.

source: techcrunch.com