UK Ex-Cop Ordered to Repay £1.8 Million for Stolen Bitcoin

A former UK National Crime Agency (NCA) officer has been ordered to repay £1.8 million for stealing Bitcoin during an investigation linked to the dark-web marketplace Silk Road 2.0.

Paul Chowles, 44, from Bristol, had access to cryptocurrency seized from devices as part of his work extracting and analyzing it. He removed around 50 BTC in 2017, which increased significantly in value between then and the confiscation order.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reported that the 50 BTC were worth approximately £60,000 when they were stolen, but the 30 BTC recovered from Chowles were included in the £1.81 million confiscation order due to their increased value over time.

Chowles was previously sentenced to five and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to theft and money laundering. The latest proceedings concern the recovery of assets connected to his offences, separate from his earlier prison sentence.