Former UK Crime Agency Officer Jailed for Stealing £4.4M in Silk Road Bitcoin Case

A former National Crime Agency officer was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for secretly assessing the digital wallet of a suspect he investigated and pocketed 50 bitcoins, earning himself a total of £4.4 million.

Paul Chowles was the lead investigator behind the Silk Road case, which granted him the privilege access to the digital wallets of the suspects he was investigating.

One of the digital wallets seized during the investigation was the wallet of Thoman White, the co-founder of the dark-web marketplace.

During the investigation, Chowles secretly transferred 50 Bitcoins from White's "retirement wallets" to a wallet address he controlled.

For years, his actions were undetected as the NCA assumed it was White who accessed the funds himself, not realizing the theft originated from within their own ranks.

After stealing the Bitcoins, Chowles used Bitcoin Fog to obscure his transaction trail. He later converted the Bitcoin to pounds sterling and spent the funds using Cryptopay and Wirex debit cards over several years.

Records showed that he made 279 transactions totaling £23,309 with the Cryptopay card and spent £79,885 through the Wirex account between August 2021 and July 2022.

Despite the original Bitcoin being worth about £59,409 at the time of the theft, Chowles financially benefited by £613,147 due to the cryptocurrency’s appreciating value and laundering activities.

Thomas White Alludes An Insider-Job

The theft only came to light after Thomas White, then subject to a £1.56 million confiscation order, flagged an unauthorized transfer from his wallet to police authorities, stating that only someone at the NCA could have conducted the movement as they held the private keys.

By late 2021, the stolen funds were presumed untraceable, leading to further scrutiny. During a routine meeting between Merseyside Police and the NCA in early 2022—where Chowles was present—the missing Bitcoin was discussed openly.

Merseyside Police launched an investigation into the missing cryptocurrency, resulting in Chowles’ arrest that May.

Officers recovered an iPhone linking him to accounts used for Bitcoin transfers, along with browsers search history related to cryptocurrency exchange services.

Chowles pled guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to multiple charges, including theft, transferring criminal property, and concealing criminal property.

The CPS intends to pursue confiscation proceedings to recover additional financial gains from his actions.

The incident adds fuel to ongoing debates about the management and sale of government-seized crypto assets.

The U.S. Department of Justice was approved to sell approximately $6.5 billion in Bitcoin seized from Silk Road, though the Trump administration suggested forming a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve instead.

Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road’s original founder, received a full presidential pardon in January 2025—after processing over 1.5 million transactions worth $213 million in Bitcoin during his operation.

This high-profile conviction highlights the risks in handling seized crypto assets and the importance of robust oversight in law enforcement agencies managing digital evidence.

The outcome also underscores the growing reliance on blockchain analytics firms in uncovering crypto-related crime and pursuing restitution for victims and the public sector.