A former officer with the UK's National Crime Agency has been ordered to repay £1,810,678.93 (roughly $2.4 million) following his theft of 50 Bitcoin during a 2017 investigation into Silk Road 2.0. Paul Chowles, 44, from Bristol, stole the Bitcoin while working on the NCA's probe into the dark web marketplace. The coins were worth approximately £60,000 at the time of the theft.
Chowles committed the theft in May 2017 while the NCA had seized approximately 97 Bitcoin as part of the investigation. He routed the stolen Bitcoin through mixing services, including Bitcoin Fog, and converted portions into fiat currency using debit card services. Over time, he spent roughly £613,000 on personal expenses.
The theft remained undetected for five years until Thomas White, the operator of Silk Road 2.0, reported the missing coins after his release from prison. Merseyside Police took over the investigation and enlisted blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis to trace the funds. Despite the use of mixing services and multiple conversion points, the on-chain analysis led investigators back to Chowles, who was arrested in May 2022.
In May 2025, Chowles pleaded guilty to one count of theft and two counts of money laundering. He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison on July 16, 2025. The confiscation order, issued on September 30, 2026, reflects the current value of approximately 30 Bitcoin that investigators recovered. The remaining 20 Bitcoin were deemed spent and dispersed through Chowles' personal expenditure before his arrest.
The confiscation order's value demonstrates Bitcoin's price appreciation since 2017. Prosecutors valued the recovery based on the current worth of recovered assets rather than their value at the time of theft.
The case highlights vulnerabilities in how law enforcement handles seized cryptocurrency. Chowles was able to remove more than half of the seized Bitcoin from a high-profile investigation without detection for years, raising questions about insider threats and the security risks posed by officers with access to seized crypto wallets and private keys.
