4 ms·

The secret life of Jimmy Zhong, who stole – and lost – more than $3B

79 points by jc_811 3y ago

Scoundreller 3y ago
Sad part was when the local police still didn’t solve the physical breakin and theft he was a victim of, but will get cut in on the proceeds from his crime the feds solved for them. Also, how do you take all those security precautions but not have a lawyer on retainer? Also, what kind of PI throws their client under the bus like that?
neom 3y ago
Why is it the IRS Criminal Investigation group doing the investigation and not the FBI? I understand there may be some tax implications but I'd have thought they'd let the FBI figure it out and deal with the tax stuff after....??
- Scoundreller 3y ago
  Accountants make better investigators
23kfuhfsdf 3y ago
in this article: person not culturally white tries to fit in using money would've been easier if he just relocated
dzonga 3y ago
why would you hang around the US with that loot ? go where uncle sam wouldn't be able to touch ya
CaffeinatedDev 3y ago
Poor dog, I hope he gets visitation time.
takinola 3y ago
The crazy part of this story (and there are a lot of crazy parts), is that he kicked the whole thing off by calling the police to investigate a crime against him that was predicated on a crime he himself performed. It's basically "hey officer, that guy just stole from me the stuff that I previously stole from someone else!"
- snydergd 3y ago
  "Your trying to kidnap what I've rightfully stolen!"
iamleppert 3y ago
If I were him I'd be pretty scared. I doubt he makes it a year after he gets out. No one in crypto will ever trust him again, and plenty of people will be hunting him down.
Bernicemazur 3y ago
[dead]
armandojimmie78 3y ago
[flagged]
BarbaraStencel 3y ago
[dead]
stevenwoo 3y ago
Have to admire the chutzpah to ask for leniency since stealing the bitcoins made the US government about three billion dollars by delaying the disposal of the bitcoins until they appreciated. He only had to serve one year after living it up for ten so not a bad trade off by some points of view.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- wodenokoto 3y ago
  On the other hand, everyone who didn’t dare to come out and ask the government for those coins now knows jimmys name, so I doubt he is off the hook.
  - Scoundreller 3y ago
    I thought someone did try to claim their bitcoin back after the original Silk Road bitcoin seizure, after they deposited bitcoin and the site got seized before they could spend anything (plausible deniability of anything unlawful), but still lost. Gov isn’t going to make it easy to “prove” you had no criminal intent, even if you didn’t do anything yet. Though it should really be the gov’s job to prove every deposit was criminal before seizing it imo. Unlikely someone would succeed now either. And the gov would probably claim they only owed you the dollar value, not the bitcoin back (but does the opposite when they claim you owe them stolen bitcoin and that’s favourable to you). Maybe it was a claim on a libertyreserve deposit? Brian Krebs himself tried to put in a claim, but no updates since his initial contact from IRS in 2020 (7 years after the seizure): https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/02/a-light-at-the-end-of-liberty-reserves-demise/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/02/a-light-at-the-end-of-li...
    - appplication 3y ago
      I agree in principle, but I think it’s also very realistic to suggest that there was no real legitimate and legal usage for Silk Road. It is possible some items and services for offer would be legal in some contexts, but the site existed for the express purpose of being a black market of illicit goods and services. I don’t see there being much plausible deniability. Not a lawyer, but I think in this case it would reasonable for it to be on the defendant to demonstrate that their participation in such a black market was legal, in good faith, and a rational choice (I.e. no reasonable alternative existed). Just surfing Silk Road? Super reasonable, should not be illegal since there is no indication of intent. Deposited money into Silk Road? You definitely had intent to transact.

79 points by jc_811 3y ago

Sad part was when the local police still didn’t solve the physical breakin and theft he was a victim of, but will get cut in on the proceeds from his crime the feds solved for them. Also, how do you take all those security precautions but not have a lawyer on retainer? Also, what kind of PI throws their client under the bus like that?

neom 3y ago

Why is it the IRS Criminal Investigation group doing the investigation and not the FBI? I understand there may be some tax implications but I'd have thought they'd let the FBI figure it out and deal with the tax stuff after....??

Scoundreller 3y ago
Accountants make better investigators

23kfuhfsdf 3y ago

in this article: person not culturally white tries to fit in using money would've been easier if he just relocated

dzonga 3y ago

why would you hang around the US with that loot ? go where uncle sam wouldn't be able to touch ya

CaffeinatedDev 3y ago

Poor dog, I hope he gets visitation time.

takinola 3y ago

The crazy part of this story (and there are a lot of crazy parts), is that he kicked the whole thing off by calling the police to investigate a crime against him that was predicated on a crime he himself performed. It's basically "hey officer, that guy just stole from me the stuff that I previously stole from someone else!"

snydergd 3y ago
"Your trying to kidnap what I've rightfully stolen!"

iamleppert 3y ago

If I were him I'd be pretty scared. I doubt he makes it a year after he gets out. No one in crypto will ever trust him again, and plenty of people will be hunting him down.

Bernicemazur 3y ago

[dead]

armandojimmie78 3y ago

[flagged]

BarbaraStencel 3y ago

[dead]

stevenwoo 3y ago

Have to admire the chutzpah to ask for leniency since stealing the bitcoins made the US government about three billion dollars by delaying the disposal of the bitcoins until they appreciated. He only had to serve one year after living it up for ten so not a bad trade off by some points of view.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
wodenokoto 3y ago
On the other hand, everyone who didn’t dare to come out and ask the government for those coins now knows jimmys name, so I doubt he is off the hook.
- Scoundreller 3y ago
  I thought someone did try to claim their bitcoin back after the original Silk Road bitcoin seizure, after they deposited bitcoin and the site got seized before they could spend anything (plausible deniability of anything unlawful), but still lost. Gov isn’t going to make it easy to “prove” you had no criminal intent, even if you didn’t do anything yet. Though it should really be the gov’s job to prove every deposit was criminal before seizing it imo. Unlikely someone would succeed now either. And the gov would probably claim they only owed you the dollar value, not the bitcoin back (but does the opposite when they claim you owe them stolen bitcoin and that’s favourable to you). Maybe it was a claim on a libertyreserve deposit? Brian Krebs himself tried to put in a claim, but no updates since his initial contact from IRS in 2020 (7 years after the seizure): https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/02/a-light-at-the-end-of-liberty-reserves-demise/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/02/a-light-at-the-end-of-li...
  - appplication 3y ago
    I agree in principle, but I think it’s also very realistic to suggest that there was no real legitimate and legal usage for Silk Road. It is possible some items and services for offer would be legal in some contexts, but the site existed for the express purpose of being a black market of illicit goods and services. I don’t see there being much plausible deniability. Not a lawyer, but I think in this case it would reasonable for it to be on the defendant to demonstrate that their participation in such a black market was legal, in good faith, and a rational choice (I.e. no reasonable alternative existed). Just surfing Silk Road? Super reasonable, should not be illegal since there is no indication of intent. Deposited money into Silk Road? You definitely had intent to transact.