NCA Officer Ordered to Repay $2.4M in Stolen Bitcoin

A former National Crime Agency (NCA) officer has been ordered to repay $2.4 million in Bitcoin stolen during an investigation into Silk Road 2.0.

Paul Chowles, a 44-year-old from Bristol, was part of the NCA's probe into the dark web marketplace and had access to seized cryptocurrency. In May 2017, he helped himself to 50 BTC, worth around $80,000 at the time, and used mixing services like Bitcoin Fog to obscure his tracks.

Chowles spent a significant portion of the stolen funds on personal expenses, estimated to be around £613,000. However, investigators were able to track the funds using blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, tracing them back to Chowles through various conversion points and fiat off-ramps.