Topic: Bitcoin thief who stole $5M worth of crypto sentenced to 4 years in prison (Read 225 times)

4 years of life for more than $5M in the future sounds like a good deal, lol. I don't think I'll make that money in 10 years.

By the way, don't you find it hilarious that governments don't give a f about you unless you show luxury lifestyle to the public? If you somehow have a lot of money, that's a red flag but if you are poor and struggle, then that's fine, none government will come to you and ask for help but when you have money, they knock on your door and ask why and how do you have it. It is no less then a crime from government.

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But for sure, life is unfair and some things can't be changed from outside. In this case, I agree with you, if you can't change something, you have to be smart, cool and adapt, keep distance, know your limits.

When witnessing such judgment, my only wish is that it remains free from bias both now and in the future. Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX, who accomplished much more, faced similar scrutiny but being handle with kid's glove. However, there are allegations that the government is attempting to conceal the truth due to his influential connections within the top government positions.

I think these proceeds will going to be added in the government budget generally.
The 4 year sentence isn't really that much and he's considered to be lucky to have that kind of imprisonment period. I mean that money was produced illegally and then stole it to put another crime on top of it. That's just insane. He could've gone to a different country. A 3rd world country would be the most preferable one as you could have these ridiculous amount of money sustainable for the remainder of his life.
However, this kind of news is somewhat an attack on Bitcoin to instill fear on the future investors.

Well, 4 years isn't a bit sentence, considering how much money he stole. But I think it's a sentence that takes into consideration that he didn't steal from innocent people, and nobody was hurt by his actions.
It's good that the money was retrieved by the authorities. I hope it will be put to good use. Normally, I hope the money is returned to victims, but considering that it was the revenue of a darknet mixer, and the owner was arrested earlier as well, there are no victims to return the money to. Does it go to the state/federal budget in this case? Or to the funding of the law enforcement? How does this work in such cases?

Ohio, there are many memes exploring using this city lol

If the mixer are working together with government, we can say that's mixer is just a honeypot and it could be a risk of everyone who use the mixer since the government can just target all the big bag holders despite there's no illegal or crime case.

It depends on the laws, it's not only about how much money the thief steal it. If you think it's unfair for people who just steal a neighbor's chicken and someone steal $5 Million get a same punishment, you can't do anything if he don't break other laws which could make him longer in the jail.

With incidents like this in bitcoin, it is feared that it will create a feeling of fear for people who invest in bitcoin. Because the theft of crypto is not a small amount, with that amount it will definitely be very influential, in the world of crypto, especially bitcoin. By getting a four year prison sentence, is the sentence worth the crypto assets he stole. Even though I don't really understand the existing law regarding the article on theft of crypto assets in America, I think the punishment given to that person, I don't think is worth the assets he stole. Not that I'm too hard on people like that, but I don't want the crypto world, especially bitcoin, to destroy its reputation, because there are criminals like that.
So in essence, we as users of crypto, especially bitcoin, must continue to protect the assets we have, and never try to tarnish the image that bitcoin has built up to now.

Yeah i also have read that case and having to serve a year in prison .

Why mention bitcoin so boldly in the news? It is very simple that adding bitcoin will attract many people to the news and get many people into thinking negatively about bitcoin or crypto-currency.

But the most shocking part for me is 4 years of jail. 5 million is no joke amount and only 4 years in prison is not that enough for that big crime.

you can say I'm happy in this arrest but it's very unfortunate why only 4 years in law, where 5 million $ is not small money, is it because they have money so they get a fairly light sentence compared to people who don't have money and just steal 1 neighbor's chicken

It gives the feeling that it should be spent as soon as possible if you didn't worked hard for it and it doesn't belong to you. That's why I still believe that karma strikes those that don't own it and swindlers that have no empathy for what they're doing with people's money.

In today's generation, bragging is like an attitude that everyone should have because of how influential the things they see on social media. But, it has also helped to catch this thief.

While this thief have spend lavishly and think that it won't be gone too soon, he deserves it but that sentence was quite short, what do you think?

I'm OK with mixers as long as they are accountable and responsible. There should be fair rules that govern all such services rather than letting them operate in anarchy or in state of lawlessness.

Wish they are bound by the rules of Bitcoin, which were created on purpose. Part of the reasons the Transparency rule for example was created is to help the community or other people monitor/track transactions of mostly anonymous users, but if you don't want yours to be tracked, make sure they are immutable just in case something happens that needs to be investigated.

Exactly. I think that related to cryptocurrency crimes can have serious consequences, if there is illegal activity involving this currency it will be a concern for anyone including governments or other institutions. It is true that both individuals, James Zhong and the Ohio man were arrested for their actions and I think the extent of their crimes and the circumstances of their arrest may have differed.

Regarding the length of sentence, I think it is not only the value of the stolen cryptocurrency that determines the length of the sentence, but also factors such as the manner in which the crime was committed, the level of cooperation with the authorities, and the criminal history of the perpetrator. individual.

it is alarming to everyone if there is a big changes in how they are living , the lifestyle itself brings them being caught , imagine those huge amount that you almost kept all your life if only knows how to handle correctly?




still nothing beats the biggest crypto theft of all time .

In the end, these types of criminals are driven by greed and money that burns in their pockets.

It's actually a human tendency, most humans find it hard to restrain themselves from spending it when you have a lot of money. The problem is when giving free rein to impulses can land you in jail, as in this case. 

The thief is a thief, whether the stolen items are bitcoins or dollars, so his natural place should be prison because of stealing people's money.

As smart as this thief is in stealing cryptocurrencies, as stupid as he is in hiding the impact of the richness that afflicted him due to theft, he had to avoid lavish expenses or flee to another country and live the life of the rich, but his stupidity landed him in the hands of the police.

The government is also happy to spread this kind of story to scare people off of bitcoin.

I am surprised by these people who have this great experience in stealing people's money, why don't they use their skills in useful work from which they earn money in a legitimate way.

If I remember correctly there's also a case about a man who abused the glitch in the ATM where he became a millionaire. When he surrendered to the police station he only got a year in the prison. So for sure he hide some money before he went to prison but before that he'd spent a lot of money like in a private jet. This cases it's like make people want to be a criminal it's like the best way to be instant millionaire with just a sacrifice of few years. I don't how the justice system works rn.

The lesson we can learn from the guy is never ever try to recover the money that your brother earned through a fraudulent activity. And even if you do so then don't spend the money like a king because your final destination will be waiting for you and that's the bars behind which you will be trapped. His own lavish style and spending habits made him the target of the agencies, if he was wise enough then he would never spend the money slowly over time. But still crime has an end and no matter how intelligent a criminal is his final destination is behind the bars.

I must say that calling the person a Bitcoin thief isn't justifiable because there were other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Doge present too. I think the government knows that creating such news is enough to attack the reputation of Bitcoin and create panic in the minds of the investors that it isn't safe and fraud people can do such bad things with it. Such clickbait title attract people because the word Bitcoin is used in it in a negative way.

The thing that's constantly moving in my mind is that why he transferred only 720 coins? what about the other coins that his brother stole? I mean it's clearly mentioned in the article that his brother successfully laundered 350,000 bitcoins. Were most of those bitcoins already seized by the agencies if yes then how could they left those 720 bitcoins?

5 Million dollars worth of crypto but only facing 4 years of sentence? is this really enough for that huge amount he had taken ?
not sure if I am too exaggerated but I think this is a lifetime sentence because there are many thief there that will risk their 4 years for this amount to live a luxurious life before being caught or after the imprisonment .

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But it is good that we are seeing something in process to take those abusers of crypto in Jail , and with this there is a true justice in a market that they called anonymous and hard to  be bring to justice .

This is how they are caught. After stealing, they find it difficult to hide themselves more especially when  the amount of money stolen is big enough to sustain them and their family but unbeknownst to them that they succeeded in attracting the federal agencies to themselves as a result of their reckless spending spree. Similar scenario to Sam Bankman-Fried but his case was that of a coordinated act with his exchange and even worse than this scenario.