Abstract

• A British court ordered former National Crime Investigation Unit officer Paul Jones to pay £1,810,678.93, which is approximately $2.4 million.
• He stole 50 bitcoins from a wallet that was seized during an investigation of the dark web market “Silk Road 2.0.”
• When these bitcoins were stolen by him in 2017, they were worth about 60,000 pounds sterling, which is approximately 77,000 US dollars.

A former official from the UK National Crime Investigation Service ( NCA ) has been ordered to repay £1,810,678.93, which is approximately $2.4 million. Previously, he stole 50 bitcoins from a wallet seized during an investigation on the dark web. At the time of his theft nine years ago, these bitcoins were valued at about £60,000, or around $77,000.

The UK Crown Prosecution Service ( Crown Prosecution Service , abbreviated as CPS ) obtained this confiscation order on Wednesday against Paul Jones ( Paul Chowles ), who is 44 years old and from Bristol, under the Criminal Proceeds Act of 2002.

Of the 50 bitcoins stolen, 30 have been recovered from Joles, and this command includes the full value of those 30 bitcoins. CPS indicates that the difference between the two amounts is due to the appreciation of bitcoin since 2017.

Joles was once a member of the team at NCA that investigated “Silk Road 2.0.” This market was launched by Thomas White ( Thomas White ) several weeks after the FBI shut down the original “Silk Road” in 2013. In this case, Joles was responsible for analyzing and extracting cryptocurrencies seized from devices. Subsequently, he transferred 50 bitcoins from a confiscated wallet and attempted to conceal the whereabouts of the funds.

These bitcoins came from White's own reserve wallet and were transferred out within two days in May 2017. Jones split this amount into smaller sums and used the Bitcoin mixing service Bitcoin Fog to transfer them, and then cashed out in 279 transactions through debit cards Cryptopay and Wirex, for a total of £144,580.

For many years, this theft has been attributed to White. White has always denied it, and by the end of 2021, these missing bitcoins were considered untraceable. In 2022, a search of Jolles's residence led to the discovery of devices containing private keys. With the assistance of Chainalysis, Merseyside Police were able to trace the relevant funds through a coin mixer.

In July 2025, Jowers was sentenced to 5 years and 6 months in prison by the Liverpool Crown Court after admitting to theft, transferring criminal property, and concealing criminal assets. NCA dismissed him on July 11, 2025.

CPS Luke Clemenz, a specialized prosecutor in the department dealing with criminal proceeds, stated: 'Paul Jowers took advantage of his trusted position to seek personal gain and stole assets that had already been recovered through law enforcement actions.' He also said that the agency will 'perseverantly pursue the criminals' assets.'

In addition, the court also issued a compensation order for the victims of this case. CPS stated that in the past five years, the relevant departments have recovered over 530 million pounds through confiscation orders, of which more than 102 million pounds have been returned to the victims.