Ex‑NCA Officer Ordered to Repay £1.81m for Stolen Bitcoin
The confiscation shows how recovered coins and higher Bitcoin prices let prosecutors use proceeds‑of‑crime powers to strip convicted insiders of illicit gains.
Overview
- On Wednesday the Crown Prosecution Service won a confiscation order for £1,810,678.93 that includes the current value of 30 Bitcoin recovered from Paul Chowles.
- Prosecutors say Chowles took 50 BTC that had been seized during a Silk Road 2.0 probe and tried to hide the coins through mixing services and fiat conversions.
- Investigators traced the on‑chain transfers with help from blockchain analytics and cooperating fiat services, recovered 30 BTC, and later built the prosecution case.
- Chowles pleaded guilty to theft and money laundering in 2025, was jailed for five years and six months, and was dismissed from the National Crime Agency.
- The case exposes insider risks in custody of seized crypto and signals that prosecutors will value recovered digital assets at current market prices to deny profit and compensate victims.