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Blockchain has always been a utopia in the minds of liberals, and various cryptographic settings can protect user privacy to the greatest extent. However, strong privacy protection is sometimes a double-edged sword, and some people with ulterior motives use blockchain, an advanced technology, as a "protective umbrella" for their own crimes.
As a hard currency among cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin has been favored by many criminals. Fortunately, Bitcoin does not provide the anonymity of "coming and going without a trace", but provides pseudonymity with poor privacy. Therefore, as the government's supervision is strengthened, some criminals are slowly beginning to reveal their true colors.
According to CNBC, an Ohio man who attempted to launder $19 million worth of Bitcoin obtained on the dark web has been caught. The Silk Road to Darkness
Silk Road was a notorious dark web black market where users could buy and sell almost anything, including fake passports, illegal drugs, weapons, hacking software and dangerous chemicals.
Christopher Tarbell, an agent in the FBI's Cyber Crime Section in New York, once described the Silk Road website as "the most advanced and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet to date."
In 2013, the Silk Road website was shut down by the FBI, but the story is far from over.
Six years later, an Ohio man was arrested for allegedly laundering more than $19 million (about 130 million yuan) worth of Bitcoin, which he reportedly earned from drug transactions on the Silk Road website. The U.S. government claims that Hugh Brian Haney of Columbus, Ohio, was involved in a large-scale drug trafficking incident on the Silk Road website from 2011 to 2012, during which time the U.S. National Security Investigation Agency was monitoring the Silk Road website.
In 2011, Ross Ulbricht, who was only 26 years old, founded the Silk Road website.
Ulbricht later ran the Silk Road website under the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts," claiming that he wanted to create a "free market site where users could buy and sell anything they wanted."
Ulbricht did exactly that, and more than $200 million in transactions on the Silk Road site were conducted using Bitcoin, which allows both parties to remain anonymous and is more difficult to track than traditional payment methods.
By the summer of 2011, Silk Road had become so popular online with its privacy and convenience that it attracted the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
After two years of investigation, the FBI shut down the Silk Road website in October 2013. Its founder, Ross Ulbricht, was charged with drug trafficking, computer hacking, and money laundering and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2015. Anonymous crime?
Eventually it may become the "Emperor's New Clothes"
The U.S. government claims that "thousands of drug dealers" used the Silk Road website to sell drugs and other contraband to more than 100,000 anonymous buyers, earning hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal proceeds.
After the Silk Road website was shut down, the FBI confiscated the bitcoins that Ross Ulbricht earned through illegal transactions. The US government later sold these bitcoins for $48 million (about 330 million yuan).
The FBI alleges that Haney was a seller on the Silk Road website.
“As alleged in the criminal indictment, Haney used Silk Road to facilitate drug trafficking around the world, earning more than $19 million in Bitcoin, which he then laundered for U.S. dollars,” said Geoffrey S. Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
“The arrest of Haney sends a strong message to those peddling drugs on the dark web that they cannot remain anonymous forever, especially when they are trying to legitimize their illegal proceeds.” According to the investigation, Haney used the pseudonym "Pharmville" to run a drug business on the Silk Road website.
The U.S. government alleges that between November 2011 and February 2012 alone, Haney earned millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin by selling illegal drugs such as the opioid painkiller OxyContin, the anesthetic ketamine and fentanyl.
According to the criminal indictment against Haney, Haney transferred more than $19.15 million worth of bitcoins he earned to an unidentified bitcoin exchange in February 2018, thereby converting the illegally obtained bitcoins into U.S. dollars and depositing them into his personal bank account.
According to the investigation by FBI agents, Haney deceived the Bitcoin exchange when laundering money. Haney claimed that the stolen Bitcoins were obtained by mining himself. Federal agents then seized the laundered money from Haney's personal bank account. Cryptocurrency is not a place beyond the law
Haney was charged with money laundering and using illegally obtained proceeds to conduct financial transactions, charges that carry a maximum sentence of 20 years and 10 years, respectively, under U.S. law.
Haney has not yet entered a plea to the charges, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 30 in Columbus.
Columbus public defender George Chaney will serve as Haney's defense attorney, but so far George Chaney has not responded to media interview requests.
As the saying goes, the net of heaven is vast and wide, and nothing can escape it. Blockchain is not a shield for crimes.
However, only when blockchain technology truly blocks some illegal loopholes can it truly return to the essence of technology and better serve everyone. (Blockchain Base Camp) |
