James "Jimmy" Zhong (born May 24, 1990) is an American man who was convicted in 2022 for stealing over 51,680

bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...

(then worth about $620,000; value as of 2023 approximately $3.4 billion) from the online

black market A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

between 2012 and 2014. Zhong, who was closely monitoring the early development of bitcoin, had found an error on Silk Road that allowed him to withdraw more funds than what was initially deposited. This was activated by repeatedly double-clicking the withdraw button, and further abused by using multiple accounts on the website. Zhong managed to conceal his identity and elude detection for nearly 10 years. He lived a luxurious lifestyle, using tools such as cryptocurrency mixers to obscure the origin of the bitcoin he spent. Zhong told friends that he had mined thousands of bitcoin in the technology's early days. Zhong initially got involved with

as an avid cocaine user. In 2016, Zhong was arrested in downtown

Athens, Georgia Athens is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Downtown Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an Research I university, ...

, for possession of cocaine. On March 13, 2019, Zhong contacted 911 to report the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency from his residence. In September 2019, he made a mistake by transferring a small amount of stolen bitcoin to a

cryptocurrency exchange A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acce ...

that followed know-your-customer rules. This was not enough to prove Zhong was the hacker. To establish Zhong's culpability, the

IRS criminal investigation division Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the United States federal law enforcement agency responsible for investigating potential criminal violations of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes, such as mone ...

collaborated with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, which was already probing the theft at Zhong's residence. On November 9, 2021, a raid on his

Gainesville, Georgia Gainesville is a city and the county seat of Hall County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 42,296. Because of its large number of poultry processing plants, it has been calle ...

, home resulted in the seizure of about 50,676 bitcoin, then valued at over $3.36 billion. Zhong cooperated with investigators, forfeited all of his bitcoin and pled guilty to one count of wire fraud. In April 2023, Zhong was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhong, James 1990 births 21st-century American criminals American cybercriminals Former billionaires Living people People associated with Bitcoin University of Georgia alumni

See also

References