Paul Chowles, a former National Crime Agency officer, has been ordered to pay £1,810,678, or more than $2.38 million, after stealing 50 BTC from a wallet seized during a 2017 Silk Road 2.0 investigation. The bitcoin was worth approximately $79,250 at the time, but its subsequent appreciation, together with Chowles’s calculated criminal benefit, drove the confiscation amount higher. He pleaded guilty to theft, transferring criminal property and concealing criminal property and was sentenced to five years and six months in prison in July 2025. Investigators recovered 30 of the 50 stolen bitcoin after tracing transactions used to conceal the funds, which had been laundered through Bitcoin Fog. Chowles was formally dismissed from the NCA on July 11, 2025. The Crown Prosecution Service said recovered funds will help satisfy the victim’s outstanding confiscation order. The CPS Proceeds of Crime Division said it recovered more than $700 million through confiscation orders over the past five years, including more than $135 million returned to victims as compensation.