Ex-NCA officer who worked on Silk Road operation ordered to repay £1.8M for stealing seized Bitcoin

A former National Crime Agency (NCA) officer who stole Bitcoin seized during an investigation into Silk Road 2.0 has been ordered to hand over more than 1.8 million ($2.4 million). Paul Chowles, 44, stole 50 of the 97 Bitcoin recovered from convicted Silk Road 2.0 administrator Thomas White. Police later recovered 30 of the stolen coins. US and European authorities shut down Silk Road 2.0 in November 2014 as part of an international operation targeting dark web marketplaces. The 50 Bitcoin were worth about 60,000 ($79,000) when Chowles stole them in 2017. Chowles had worked on the NCA investigation into criminal activity on the original Silk Road and later took the lead in analyzing data and extracting cryptocurrency from devices seized from White. Between May 6 and 7, 2017, he transferred 50 Bitcoin from White's "retirement wallet" to an address under his control. He then divided the coins into smaller amounts and routed them through Bitcoin Fog, a mixing service used to obscure cryptocurrency transactions. By the time of his sentencing in July 2025, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) valued the 50 Bitcoin at more than 4.4 million ($5.8 million). The CPS said the rise in Bitcoin's value helped take the benefit attributed to Chowles' offending to 1,970,759.27. When making a confiscation order, a court considers both the benefit obtained through the crime and the defendant's "available amount" - the value of assets that can be used to satisfy the order. Chowles' available amount was assessed at 1,810,678.93, and Liverpool Crown Court ordered him to pay that sum. Luke Clements, specialist prosecutor at the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, said: "Paul Chowles exploited a position of trust for personal gain, stealing assets that had already been recovered through law enforcement action. "Confiscation orders are a powerful tool in ensuring that crime does not pay. Today's order sends a clear message that we will pursue offenders' assets relentlessly and seek to recover criminal proceeds wherever they are hidden. "The CPS Proceeds of Crime Division will continue to work closely with law enforcement partners to identify criminal benefit and take robust action to strip offenders of the profits of their crimes." Chowles, from Bristol, was dismissed from the NCA on July 11, 2025. Five days later, Liverpool Crown Court sentenced him to five years and six months in prison after he pleaded guilty to theft, transferring criminal property, and concealing criminal property. Suspicion eventually fell on Chowles after White insisted that someone inside the NCA must have taken the Bitcoin. The NCA initially assumed White had moved the missing Bitcoin himself because he had the technical knowledge to do so. By late 2021, investigators regarded the coins as untraceable and wrote them off. Following White's conviction, the court imposed a confiscation order of 1,560,506. The NCA sold the remaining 47 Bitcoin to satisfy part of it, leaving 1,066,956 outstanding. White maintained that someone within the agency had stolen the other 50 coins because NCA investigators held the private keys to his wallet. Merseyside Police was responsible for managing White locally after his release on license in early 2022. When Merseyside officers met NCA counterparts to discuss White's allegation, Chowles attended the meeting. Merseyside Police subsequently opened an investigation and arrested him in May 2022. Investigators recovered an iPhone linking Chowles to an account used to transfer Bitcoin, along with relevant searches for a cryptocurrency exchange. They also found notebooks in his office containing usernames, passwords, and statements relating to White's cryptocurrency accounts. (R)