The U.S. government has seized $1 billion in Bitcoin from dark web marketplace Silk Road, a platform known for the sale of drugs and other illegal items, according to reports.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday announced that it filed a civil action to forfeit thousands of Bitcoin, worth more than $1 billion, which was seized by law enforcement on Nov. 3.
The amount if the largest seizure of cryptocurrency in the history of the department, the DOJ said.
Silk Road was seized by law enforcement in October 2013 after enjoying several years of being the most successful criminal marketplace on the internet. Drugs and other illegal goods and services were traded via the site.
When it was taken down in 2013, the website had almost 13,000 listings for banned substances, computer hacking and murder for hire.
Earlier this year, federal agents used a third-party bitcoin attribution company to analyze transactions by Silk Road and found 54 previously undetected transactions executed by the marketplace.
Those funds were stolen from Silk Road around 2012 or 2013, according to the DOJ.
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Those funds were traced to a bitcoin address connected to an unnamed person referred to as “Individual X” and seized, the department said.
Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road creator, was arrested and convicted in 2015. According to The Verge, he is currently serving a double life sentence plus 40 years. He allegedly threatened Individual X for the return of the funds, but was rebuffed.
Earlier this week, that individual agreed to forfeit the funds.
“Silk Road was the most notorious online criminal marketplace of its day,” said U.S. Attorney Anderson. “The successful prosecution of Silk Road’s founder in 2015 left open a billion-dollar question.
Where did the money go? Today’s forfeiture complaint answers this open question at least in part. $1 billion of these criminal proceeds are now in the United States’ possession.”
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