Former UK National Crime Agency officer Paul Chowles has been ordered to repay £1.81 million (approximately $2.4 million) after stealing 50 Bitcoin during a 2017 investigation into dark web marketplace Silk Road 2.0. At the time of the theft, those Bitcoin were worth around £60,000. Chowles used mixing services like Bitcoin Fog and platforms like Cryptopay and Wirex to launder and convert the funds, spending roughly £613,000 on personal expenses. The investigation by Merseyside Police, aided by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, managed to trace the financial trail despite attempts to obscure it. He was arrested in May 2022, pleaded guilty in May 2025, and was sentenced to five and a half years in prison in July 2025.
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