Topic: The Man Who Stole Over 51,680 Bitcoin - page 2. (Read 463 times)
This is a sad event, imagine someone who should be contributing to the Bitcoin development positively haven't been around from the early days, turning out to become one of the biggest bad actors in the community, anyways I believe no thieve will go unpunished, and imagine how such a small amount from the stolen funds have been tagged and no useable, because of the source, well way back it was easy to accumulate such amount of bitcoin with just a few bucks but he decided to allow his greed to overtake his sense of reasoning but so also the sentence to me is very short compared to his total amount in fraud as at the time he was finally arrested.
he also made the mistake of sending $800 worth of bitcoins to an exchange where KYC is mandatory.
Was this mixed coins that he deposited in the exchange? If yes, does it mean the mixer failed to do the job? If he actually used mixers, how could he be careless to deposit unmixed coins to the exchange? This is very interesting to read and again this has distinguished bitcoin from other cryptocurrencies and also gave them a proper perspective on what people say about bitcoin which is false; the statement that says bitcoin is used to conceal criminal activities which is not. Stolen bitcoins are easily tracked by agencies since those coins will have already been tagged as stolen, pending on when the identity information of the person will be revealed, the coins will be tracked and the owner can be caught immediately it’s linked to an identity.
It is hard to cover your tracks if you gained so much bitcoin illegally. That's a lot of money and what are the points of taking it into your custody if you can not use it or spend it as you want? Now he will spend part of his life in prison.
Jimmy Zhong is not spending a long time in prison, he was only sentenced to one year and a day in prison, and i think that is because he pleaded guilty and already forfeited the funds to the government, and from what i read, another reason for the lenient sentence is because he didn't use the darknet website to purchase or sell anything illegal, i guess his only activity there was exploiting that vulnerability.Similar things happen with all the hackers who stole lots of money from various defi protocol which destroyed many lives. What a waste of money by a single rouge person!
Zhong's case is different in my honest opinion, i would not put him in the same category of hackers like this, or those who create services to defraud people, yes he exploited a glitch in the silk road marketplace, but take note that the silk road is an illegal darknet marketplace, and Zhong even claims that the site's owner Ross Ulbricht sent him more BTC's after he explained how he was able to exploit the vulnerability and steal from the darknet website. 
Wow this is magnificent and how will someone with such amount of possessions do KYC for merely $800 and now it already got him to doom and I really feel pity for him but how on earth will someone be able to steal over such amount of bitcoin from an exchange and took so much time to uncover in the states and it is also evident that the criminal really lived an expensive life and I can’t even imagine him in the person
This is also a wake up call that no one is above scam and we should take our security and privacy very personal as this also an example that we can be tracked down if the need from the KYC.
This is also a wake up call that no one is above scam and we should take our security and privacy very personal as this also an example that we can be tracked down if the need from the KYC.
To this, I can only respond by saying, "You can't keep hiding your bad record forever." There will be moments when you forget how to continue hiding your previous movements so that you are not found.
This, I believe, was Jimmy Zhong's fate. He failed to realize that his horrible deeds from 2012 have been haunting him by the American government. He had been playing it safe all along, but after years of the Silk Road exchange not knowing who he was, it was only a little mistake to expose his ID to an exchange to transfer $800 that brought him to light.
This, I believe, was Jimmy Zhong's fate. He failed to realize that his horrible deeds from 2012 have been haunting him by the American government. He had been playing it safe all along, but after years of the Silk Road exchange not knowing who he was, it was only a little mistake to expose his ID to an exchange to transfer $800 that brought him to light.
Additionally, the stolen assets were seized by the United States government.
That is what the United States government will do but what we don't know is whether the seized stolen assets include all the stolen bitcoin assets with no one sold by Zhon. From 2012 until his arrest in 2023, he kept them all in his portfolio. That seems impossible in some way. 
Here is a story of a man named Jimmy Zhong, who is said to have stolen over 51,680 Bitcoin from the illegal darknet market, Silk Road back in 2012.
In 2012, Jimmy Zhong discovered a bug on Silk Road exchange that caused him to withdraw more funds than he originally deposited or had in his account.
Over the years, the value of those stolen Bitcoins skyrocketed to more than $3 billion. However, he made a small mistake and transferred approximately $800 in funds to a cryptocurrency exchange which then asked him to go through a KYC process that required the account holder's real name and address, Jimmy did and this was how his downfall began.
In 2012, Jimmy Zhong discovered a bug on Silk Road exchange that caused him to withdraw more funds than he originally deposited or had in his account.
Over the years, the value of those stolen Bitcoins skyrocketed to more than $3 billion. However, he made a small mistake and transferred approximately $800 in funds to a cryptocurrency exchange which then asked him to go through a KYC process that required the account holder's real name and address, Jimmy did and this was how his downfall began.
That serves him right, the way he got the money was not legitimate and if he also faces the worst predicament of his life throughout the whole process, he would have better understanding on the law of life which states what you throws up comes down, he's not the first to have been involved in this kind of heist in which their bubbles blasted along the way, i hope by now he would have been regretting many of his past actions that led to this.
This is what he actually looks like:
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/17/crypto911.html
And I think just like any other cyber criminals, it will just take one mistake in crypto before you can be trace and found out. In his case he did a KYC on a exchange and that's why he was able to be trace IRS and connect everything him as the Silk Road hackers.
This is not the first time though that we have heard this kind of missteps and sure will not be the last.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/17/crypto911.html
And I think just like any other cyber criminals, it will just take one mistake in crypto before you can be trace and found out. In his case he did a KYC on a exchange and that's why he was able to be trace IRS and connect everything him as the Silk Road hackers.
This is not the first time though that we have heard this kind of missteps and sure will not be the last.
Wrongdoings are wrongdoings, regardless of the fact that the Bitcoins were stolen from another illegal entity. Probably that's the reason he only got one year of imprisonment for stealing close to 3 billion dollars.
I really hope all hackers get their part of karma for stealing money. They are real threats to the society and with the advancement of internet, it has become even more lethal. Justice has to be served, today or tomorrow.
I really hope all hackers get their part of karma for stealing money. They are real threats to the society and with the advancement of internet, it has become even more lethal. Justice has to be served, today or tomorrow.
Yeah, I agree with you that wrongdoings will always make someone pay for their such activity. But, the guy didn't store close to 3 Billion dollars worth of Bitcoin because in 2012 the rate of Bitcoin wasn't too high and 51680 Bitcoin were less than $1M in value back then. The guy hacked around $400k to $690K in those days as Bitcoin's value was below $14 in 2012 and they weren't worth the way they are worth today.
The hackers are really big threat to the community but unfortunately very few of those get punished as most of them are so smart that it would be difficult for governmental agencies to trace them. This guy was a newbie type of hacker because a good hacker must have enough knowledge about technology and they would never do something that Jimmy did back then.
A hacker would never ever do his/her KYC approval because hackers know that how sensitive their privacy and anonymity is and that's why they would never do anything to make out their privacy compromisable. The guy was just a script kiddie who really didn't had proper knowledge about hacking.
The story is one reason not to trust centralized exchanges that they keep our data private. If centralized exchanges are truly protecting their customers data, then it should have not been leaked to any institution.
I believe on those early days, Bitcoin was considered/believed an anonymous coin that can mask someone identity, so that maybe one of the reason why the person got careless.
It is a normal practice for the authority to ransack the property of a suspected person. They do authorized robbery in the name of justice lol.
I believe on those early days, Bitcoin was considered/believed an anonymous coin that can mask someone identity, so that maybe one of the reason why the person got careless.
Anyway it's a tough story and I feel sorry for the guy. He seems like a good person and the punishment is WAY too high. They took everything he had, not only the silk road coins, which is crazy.
It is a normal practice for the authority to ransack the property of a suspected person. They do authorized robbery in the name of justice lol.
The question is are they still holding that volume of bitcoin he stole then till now or they have sold it? Because if they are holding till date I believe that will worth something very large, but if they sold out when it was nothing then I can see this story not to be attractive because people will be glad to hear how they managed to secure it till date. I would have clicked on the video to watch but I don't like clicking on everything I come across here with my mobile rather pc will be more better, just that I am only being mindful with the kind of links I clicked here.
I think that question is left to the particular government that arrested him and whether the fund had been release or not. This kind of fund is most ceased and the United States government determines what they will do with it whether to auction it or keep for when it is appropriate for it to be sold. I am happy that the culprit had finally became a changed man that is ready to help the government and other projects too to stay safe equip there sites with tools that will prevent any bug that is capable of causing damages. Many of the exchanges we have today would have keep tools in place that will tightened there security and prevent hacking attempts.
I don't know why I like this story but this shows the extent these exchanges can freely give out information to third parties without our consent, and I wonder who else has access to this Information 
Tbh I wish we went back in time where KYC was not a btw just how did this KYC requirements become industry standard for the big exchanges 
Coming back to this story, I don't buy this idea of a smart guy such as Zhong can steal this lump sum of coins and knows the darkweb can fall for such a silly mistake, why didn't he use a mixer or non KYC exchange...doesn't add up!!!
Tbh I wish we went back in time where KYC was not a btw just how did this KYC requirements become industry standard for the big exchanges Coming back to this story, I don't buy this idea of a smart guy such as Zhong can steal this lump sum of coins and knows the darkweb can fall for such a silly mistake, why didn't he use a mixer or non KYC exchange...doesn't add up!!!
Wow, this is very useful especially for us future key solvers, we will make sure not to make the same mistake.🤣
Good points, soo no hardware wallet, no cash, no CEX.
It can be said that this is the first lesson in understanding the importance of maintaining privacy on the blockchain, and that the blockchain alone does not provide complete privacy, but rather many other precautions must be added in parallel. I am sure that this thief was not aware of any privacy details, although he seems to be the most conservative about it as long as he uses Darkweb. An $800 mistake cost him millions of dollars and a prison sentence. He could have avoided all of this if he had taken the time to find the right way to use that money, but I can't blame him too much since at that time there were no mixers to my knowledge. Good points, soo no hardware wallet, no cash, no CEX.
Jimmy was a young boy, he has a safe in stone.
Wait, the subject of wire fraud is money. This story happened in 2012. But did bitcoin have then (as now) any legal status, that is, official recognition? I don't think so. Then how was Jimmy prosecuted? If he had stolen money in this way, there would have been no questions.
Wait, the subject of wire fraud is money. This story happened in 2012. But did bitcoin have then (as now) any legal status, that is, official recognition? I don't think so. Then how was Jimmy prosecuted? If he had stolen money in this way, there would have been no questions.
... and a safe with password wallet containing Bitcoins form during the Silk Road hack of 2012...
It would be interesting to know more about this part. How were bitcoins kept at Jimmy Zhong’s place?... and also teaches is how important privacy is and can be for all of us.
and also how important it is to hide bitcoins in such a way that no dog will find it. Literally. 
But the good news is that he was sentenced to "one year and one day in federal prison."
I don't see how that should be good news. He stole and jeopardised the happiness of many and the exchange itself. He should've been given more years in the penitentiary. His action should be condemned in totality.I thought this guy was Chinese, given his last name is Zhong.
he is asian. the screenshot above is not jimmy.. jimmy in the screenshot is hiding under a black jacket. the guy in blue is someone else
Jimmy turned out to be one of the first OG players in the Bitcoin community, contributing to the original Bitcoin code and providing early developers with ideas on key topics, such as how to reduce the size of the blockchain. Eventually, he changed his path and became one of the biggest Bitcoin thieves of all time.
It is unfortunate that this is the end of an old man in the Bitcoin community who had good contributions to the development of Bitcoin in the early stages, this is really strange.I do not know what made a man with this experience and who could have a great future turn into one of the biggest Bitcoin thieves and end up in prison. Such a man should have had great ambitions and a much better future than this.
The other surprising thing about the story is that how did a professional man like him make a huge mistake that led to him getting caught by approving the KYC application?
Actually I shared this story months ago already. 
Here is the link of a nice documentary and my thread again, I guess you missed it.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/great-new-youtube-documentary-about-btctalk-member-jimmy-zhong-mb300sd-5462157
Some days ago I saw there is a new documentary on youtube but I guess it's basically the same story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nq3ye-QCyM&pp=ygULamltbXkgemhvbmc%3D
The one in my thread is very well researched in my opinion.
Anyway it's a tough story and I feel sorry for the guy. He seems like a good person and the punishment is WAY too high. They took everything he had, not only the silk road coins, which is crazy.
Here is the link of a nice documentary and my thread again, I guess you missed it.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/great-new-youtube-documentary-about-btctalk-member-jimmy-zhong-mb300sd-5462157
Some days ago I saw there is a new documentary on youtube but I guess it's basically the same story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nq3ye-QCyM&pp=ygULamltbXkgemhvbmc%3D
The one in my thread is very well researched in my opinion.
Anyway it's a tough story and I feel sorry for the guy. He seems like a good person and the punishment is WAY too high. They took everything he had, not only the silk road coins, which is crazy.
It is hard to cover your tracks if you gained so much bitcoin illegally. That's a lot of money and what are the points of taking it into your custody if you can not use it or spend it as you want? Now he will spend part of his life in prison. Similar things happen with all the hackers who stole lots of money from various defi protocol which destroyed many lives. What a waste of money by a single rouge person!
At the time that bitcoin was not worth so much, so I would guess he thought he could fly under the radar for some time and then spend those coins without taking any protective measure to hide who he was.A big mistake as we have seen, as not only he stole from one of the most famous darknet markets, but he also seems to have kept all of those coins which are now worth a fortune, and in that case not even the US government could allow itself to look the other way and it decided to go for him as soon as it got a hint of his real identity.
Here is a story of a man named Jimmy Zhong, who is said to have stolen over 51,680 Bitcoin from the illegal darknet market, Silk Road back in 2012.
In 2012, Jimmy Zhong discovered a bug on Silk Road exchange that caused him to withdraw more funds than he originally deposited or had in his account.
Over the years, the value of those stolen Bitcoins skyrocketed to more than $3 billion. However, he made a small mistake and transferred approximately $800 in funds to a cryptocurrency exchange which then asked him to go through a KYC process that required the account holder's real name and address, Jimmy did and this was how his downfall began.
Along with other evidence, three IRS agents began formulating a plan to approach Jimmy. Eventually, they obtained a search warrant for Jimmy's home, and sniffer dogs found a safe buried in concrete beneath the basement slabs containing precious metals, stacks of cash, physical bitcoins minted in the early days of the cryptocurrency and a safe with password wallet containing Bitcoins form during the Silk Road hack of 2012. Jimmy ultimately faced charges of wire fraud and, after pleading guilty, was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison. Additionally, the stolen assets were seized by the United States government.
Jimmy turned out to be one of the first OG players in the Bitcoin community, contributing to the original Bitcoin code and providing early developers with ideas on key topics, such as how to reduce the size of the blockchain. Eventually, he changed his path and became one of the biggest Bitcoin thieves of all time.
Watch the 33 minutes video below, it contains very vital information which i believe we all can learn something from, it's very well documented, straight to the point and very informative, and also teaches is how important privacy is and can be for all of us.
...
On the time that you had really experienced up some exploit on which you could really be able to see yourself that making rich since you are really that able to snip out some coins even if we do speak about into those early years of BItcoin which we know that the value of that time is really that still low or cheap on which means that 50k bitcoins wouldnt really be worth as much of today In 2012, Jimmy Zhong discovered a bug on Silk Road exchange that caused him to withdraw more funds than he originally deposited or had in his account.
Over the years, the value of those stolen Bitcoins skyrocketed to more than $3 billion. However, he made a small mistake and transferred approximately $800 in funds to a cryptocurrency exchange which then asked him to go through a KYC process that required the account holder's real name and address, Jimmy did and this was how his downfall began.
Along with other evidence, three IRS agents began formulating a plan to approach Jimmy. Eventually, they obtained a search warrant for Jimmy's home, and sniffer dogs found a safe buried in concrete beneath the basement slabs containing precious metals, stacks of cash, physical bitcoins minted in the early days of the cryptocurrency and a safe with password wallet containing Bitcoins form during the Silk Road hack of 2012. Jimmy ultimately faced charges of wire fraud and, after pleading guilty, was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison. Additionally, the stolen assets were seized by the United States government.
Jimmy turned out to be one of the first OG players in the Bitcoin community, contributing to the original Bitcoin code and providing early developers with ideas on key topics, such as how to reduce the size of the blockchain. Eventually, he changed his path and became one of the biggest Bitcoin thieves of all time.
Watch the 33 minutes video below, it contains very vital information which i believe we all can learn something from, it's very well documented, straight to the point and very informative, and also teaches is how important privacy is and can be for all of us.
...
and he never expect that thing to go boom. THe only thing that he had made out such mistake is on dealing with CEX. How this person wasnt really that able to think off about the possibilities for him
to get tracked? Knowing that hackers address is already that being surveillanced once it is involved on huge hack on which it is normal that government would really be doing their best to get a hold
with those address that is involved on such crime. Dont know if he's really just that careless or really just that dumb. Well, im not really that going in line with exploit or stealing something but
we cant really be able to deny that news like this would really be that always remain as part of the history and cant really be that easily forgotten.
Wow, this is very useful especially for us future key solvers, we will make sure not to make the same mistake.🤣
Good points, soo no hardware wallet, no cash, no CEX.
Jokes aside 😏, he didn't steal from people, correct? He essentially stole from criminals, so he is a master thief.
Stealing will never end well, we have seen it over and over, but people never learn, why?
Good points, soo no hardware wallet, no cash, no CEX.
Jokes aside 😏, he didn't steal from people, correct? He essentially stole from criminals, so he is a master thief.
Stealing will never end well, we have seen it over and over, but people never learn, why?
It is hard to cover your tracks if you gained so much bitcoin illegally. That's a lot of money and what are the points of taking it into your custody if you can not use it or spend it as you want? Now he will spend part of his life in prison. Similar things happen with all the hackers who stole lots of money from various defi protocol which destroyed many lives. What a waste of money by a single rouge person!
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