Key Takeaways
- Former NCA officer Paul Chowles was sentenced in July 2025 to over five years in jail for stealing 50 seized bitcoin.
- The bitcoin was collectively worth less than $80,000 at the time of the theft in 2017, but Bitcoin has skyrocketed in price since.
- The CPS Proceeds of Crime Division will use recovered funds to pay compensation to the victim.
Dark Web Theft and Asset Laundering
A disgraced former National Crime Agency officer who stole seized cryptocurrency following an investigation into the dark web marketplace Silk Road 2.0 has been ordered to pay back more than $2.38 million (£1.8 million).
Paul Chowles, 44, of Bristol, was jailed for five and a half years in July 2025 after pleading guilty to theft, transferring criminal property and concealing criminal property. He was formally dismissed from the agency on July 11, 2025.
As part of the law enforcement team investigating Silk Road 2.0, a dark web marketplace used by organized crime syndicates to sell illegal goods, Chowles was assigned to analyze and extract cryptocurrency from seized digital devices. Exploiting his access, Chowles later surreptitiously transferred 50 bitcoins out of a confiscated law enforcement wallet. At the time of the theft in 2017, the crypto haul was valued at approximately $79,250.
According to a statement released by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Chowles subsequently attempted to conceal the digital trail by routing the stolen funds through a complex series of cryptocurrency transactions. However, financial investigators from Merseyside Police and the North West Regional Asset Recovery Team successfully traced the digital assets, eventually recovering 30 of the 50 stolen bitcoin from him.
The appreciation of bitcoin over time, along with the rest of his calculated criminal benefit, drove the final confiscation sum to nearly $2.4 million. A compensation order has also been granted, directing that funds recovered from Chowles be used to assist in satisfying the outstanding confiscation order of the victim in the original case.
Prosecution Vows: ‘Crime Does Not Pay’
Luke Clements, a specialist prosecutor in the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, condemned Chowles’ breach of trust: “Paul Chowles exploited a position of trust for personal gain, stealing assets that had already been recovered through law enforcement action.”
According to Clements, the confiscation orders send a clear message that law enforcement will pursue offenders’ assets relentlessly and seek to recover criminal proceeds wherever they are hidden.
“The CPS Proceeds of Crime Division will continue to work closely with law enforcement partners to identify criminal benefit and take robust action to strip offenders of the profits of their crimes,” Clements said, adding that “crime does not pay.”
Over the last five years, the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division said it has recovered more than $700 million through confiscation orders, with more than $135 million returned directly to victims of crime as compensation.
