According to reports, the founder of the now-defunct Silk Road 2 marketplace has forfeited more than half-million dollars worth of bitcoin to British authorities. White’s Silk Road 2 admin handle was called “Cthulhu,” and he also dubbed himself as “DPR2.”
Silk Road 2 Admin Thomas White Forfeits $667K in Bitcoin
In April 2019, Bitcoin.com News reported on Thomas White, the lead administrator of the now-defunct Silk Road 2 darknet marketplace (DNM), getting sentenced to five years in prison. The Silk Road 2 (SR2) DNM was the original Silk Road’s successor, after the first Silk Road administrator was taken into custody. The 26-year-old White ran the DNM under the names “Cthulhu” and “DPR2,” and was eventually tracked when he ordered a package from the SR2 marketplace itself.
Sky News reports that White has been forced to hand over £490,000 ($667,000) worth of bitcoin from his net proceeds. The prosecutors continued to monitor White’s finances after he was jailed and the National Crime Agency (NCA) believes he made roughly £1.5 million ($2,048,100) from his SR2 operations. Law enforcement estimates that the SR2 pulled in roughly $8 million in bitcoin every month after it launched.
National Crime Agency Claims White Was a ‘Well-Regarded Member of the Original Silk Road Hierarchy’
Reportedly, SR2 did not have any official affiliations with the original Silk Road market, but appeared online approximately 30 days after the site was seized in October 2013. At the court hearing last week, White was described as being affiliated with members of the original Silk Road, and the NCA says he used his reputation to his advantage.
“Thomas White was a well-regarded member of the original Silk Road hierarchy,” Tyrone Surgeon, an NCA spokesperson said. “He used this to his advantage when the original site was closed down and profited significantly from his criminal activity. This case proves that crime doesn’t pay – not only has he spent the last two years in prison, he now has to hand over nearly £500,000,” Surgeon added.
So far White has served two years of his five-year and four-month prison sentence alongside forfeiting the $667,000 worth of bitcoin. The SR2 administrator was charged with money laundering, drug trafficking, and possession of illegal images. “This has been a complex, international investigation and highlights that we will use every tool at our disposal to disrupt organised criminals from profiting from their crime,” Surgeon added in his statement.
**Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article contained a typo that said “half-billion” and was replaced with “half-million,” in terms of the size of White’s bitcoin forfeiture.
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