This is the story of a theft that did not allow the world’s top investigation agency to breathe easy for 6 years. Not one or two, but this theft was worth Rs 29,000 crores. How did a 3.5 billion dollar thief go away with just one phone call? In what method did he waste so much cash?
How was it hidden in a small container and above all, after the recovery of the money, why did the person to whom it actually belonged turn away from this money? On 13th September 2019, a boy named Jimmy Jung called 911. This was the emergency call of his life which put him in great trouble.
Party Boy’s Trap
Jimmy Zhong was the one to trap. He lived in a small town named Athens in the US state of Georgia. He had called the police to report a theft in his house and when asked by the police officer, he told that Rs. 4 lakhs were stolen from his house. The police officer got a little interested after hearing that such a huge amount of dollars had been stolen. Jimmy had installed an excellent security system at his house and he also had CCTV footage of the thief entering the house who had his face covered. Jimmy Jung Was a student at the University of Georgia and was known among his friends as the Party Boy.
He used to spend 5 lakh dollars i.e. about 1.25 crore rupees in every party. When he went to a bar, he would buy free drinks for all the people present there. Most of his friends supported him only out of greed for money and debauchery, even their own Jimmy once gathered his friends and took them all to Los Angeles in a private jet to watch the match of his favorite football team, so the purpose of saying this is that Jimmy had so much money at a very young age that perhaps he Unable to handle even himself, when the police failed to find out the theft in his house, a private detective named Martinelli was hired because from Jimmy’s lifestyle and friend circle.
Private Detective Investigation
It seemed that this theft was committed by one of his friends, that is why Martin Lelli hired Jimmy’s private life to study his case thoroughly. This private detective was also worried as to what was Jimmy’s source of income behind spending so much at such a young age. Jimmy used to tell everyone that he was a Bitcoin trader and crypto trader. Investors have seen the rise of Bitcoin coin in the last few years.
Seeing the prices, everyone believed it. Martinelli said that the boy who was seen entering his house in the video footage knew everything that Jimmy was not at home and at what time he had to take action, which shows this. That this must be someone close to Jimmy, it was not that the Athens Police had first established connection with Jimmy a few years ago and he had been caught in the case of possessing cocaine and since then Jimmy had a big relationship with the police officers. He had good behavior and often the Athens police used the CCTV cameras installed at his house to investigate other cases.
911 Call Highlights
She also used to do investigation but this time due to the call made to 911, Jimmy had become very highlighted in the eyes of the police. Meanwhile, the Regional Cyber Crime Unit also came to know that 4 lakh lakh dollars had been stolen from Jimmy Jung’s house and He calls himself a Bitcoin trader. They doubted that Jimmy had only Bitcoins but where did so much money come from? This Regional Cyber Crime Unit was investigating the case of Silk Road Crypto Heist for the last seven years but for so long they were There was not a single hint that Silk Road was an online exchange where all the wrong and all illegal things were traded here, from weapons to drugs, and its transactions were done in Bit Coins.
In 2012, this exchange got hacked and someone stole a total of 51680 Bit Coins from all the traders, but because it is an illegal dark website. This was the reason why no one reported this theft. The very next year the owner of Silk Road was caught and the FBI closed the website and took all the bitcoins in their possession. 17000 bit coins were recovered from the owner of Silk Road but 51680 Bitcoins were still missing which had actually already been stolen by a hacker.
Silk Road Bitcoin Investigation
The FBI was feeling that maybe the owner of Silk Road had transferred it to some other account and now he is lying to us. The transactions of different accounts of Bitcoin are completely transparent, anyone can see them but only through the account. The owner is not known. The Regional Cyber Crime Unit suspected whether Jimmy Jung had any connection with the bitcoins stolen from the Silk Road account. For this, it was necessary to first find out what was Jimmy’s bitcoin address. Athens Police and Regional Cyber Crime.
The unit together made a plan to meet Jimmy because the police were already investigating his $4 lakh case, so this meeting was completely normal for Jimmy. Three plain clothes officers entered Jimmy’s house with body camp. Made him believe that he was not someone else but in connection with the investigation of those 4 lakh dollars. During the conversation, he tried to ask Jimmy what was his source of income, on this Jimmy made him visit his room. Where two Bitcoin miners were kept in the team of Regional Cyber Crime Unit.
Silk Road Investigation
There was also a blockchain expert, he immediately guessed that a couple of Bitcoin mining machines could not generate as much wealth as Jimmy spends. Meanwhile, while talking, an officer accessed Jimmy’s laptop and copied his Bitcoin address. It was one of Jimmy’s many Bitcoin addresses, but it was enough to establish a connection with the Silk Road Crypto Heist. The Regional Cyber Crime Unit’s arrow was right on target. Although there was no significant amount of money in this Bitcoin address, but its transactions Link to History Many Years Ago Silk Road.
There was a match with Jimmy’s account. It was proved that Jimmy definitely has some connection with the height of Silk Road. Now the officers were searching for those 51000 bit coins which they thought were present with Jimmy. They once again Contacted Jimmy and fixed a meeting with him, but this time they had taken a search warrant against him. When Jimmy came to know, his face paled. The officers started searching his house and checked each and every tile. Hadn’t Jimmy made a secret storage box? Eventually they spotted a container of Cheetos.
Bitcoin Wallet Discovery
There was a small towel lying inside. When he saw a piece of towel in the snack container, he got suspicious, so he took it out and saw a small computer chip lying under the towel. It was a hard wallet of Bitcoin in which 51000 Bitcoins were still present. In 2000-21, their value was 3.5 billion dollars. Jimmy Jung was now badly trapped. While trying to catch the thief of his 4 lakh dollars, he had lost 51000 bitcoins.
Jimmy told the officers that to fulfill his drug habit He used to go to Silk Road Exchange and buy drugs from there.
One day in 2012 When he was withdrawing his bitcoins from there, he noticed a loop hole in the website. Jimmy had good knowledge of blockchain, so using that loop hole, he started withdrawing the bitcoins of the users of other websites as well.
When he withdrew 51680 bitcoins, the owner of Silk Road came to know. According to the value of Bitcoin at that time, this amount was equal to $ lakhs. The owner of Silk Road knew that he could not complain to the police. So he sent a private message to Jimmy and asked him if he had seen the website.
Bitcoin Fraud Uncovered
What loop hole has he found in Jimmy told him the loop hole of the website in return for which he forgave the stolen bitcoins Athens Police, FBI and Regional Cyber Crime Unit had now solved the many years old case Jimmy Jung was accused of wire fraud in 2023 In this case, he was sentenced to 1 year and 1 day.
This is considered to be the biggest Bitcoin high in the history of the US. If Jimmy had not called 911 that day, then perhaps he would have been roaming free today along with his Bitcoins, but this phone call made Jimmy In one stroke, the FBI brought down the real owner of the seized 51,000 bitcoins.
A notice was issued asking all those who had suffered losses in the 2012 Silk Road Crypto Heist to come forward and claim their bitcoins, but the surprising thing was that not a single person came forward because coming forward meant that he had a Silk Road Pay account. And the only meaning of Silk Road Pay account is that it was involved in some criminal activity.
