From Trust to Trezor: Ex-NCA Cop Priced Out of His Own Heist 🍿

A former National Crime Agency officer has been ordered to repay £1,810,678.93, around $2.4 million, after stealing 50 Bitcoin from a wallet seized during a dark web investigation — coins valued at roughly £60,000, or $77,000, when he took them nine years ago. The Crown Prosecution Service secured the confiscation order against Paul Chowles, 44, of Bristol, on Wednesday under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Chowles was part of the NCA team investigating Silk Road 2.0, the marketplace Thomas White launched weeks after the FBI shut down the original Silk Road in 2013. He led the analysis and extraction of digital assets from devices seized in the case, then moved the 50 BTC out of a confiscated wallet and attempted to obscure the trail. The coins originated from White's own reserve wallet over two days in May 2017. Chowles split the sum into smaller amounts, routed them through the Bitcoin Fog mixing service, and cashed out via Cryptopay and Wirex debit cards across 279 transactions totaling £144,580. Thirty of the 50 BTC were recovered from Chowles, with the order including their total value; the CPS attributes the gap to Bitcoin's appreciation since 2017.

The theft was blamed on White for years. He denied it throughout, and by late 2021 the missing coins had been written off as untraceable. A search of Chowles' home in 2022 turned up devices holding the private keys, and Merseyside Police traced the funds through the mixer with assistance from Chainalysis. He was jailed for five years and six months at Liverpool Crown Court in July 2025 after pleading guilty to theft, transferring criminal property and concealing criminal property. The NCA dismissed him on 11 July 2025.

"Paul Chowles exploited a position of trust for personal gain, stealing assets that had already been recovered through law enforcement action," said Luke Clements, a specialist prosecutor in the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, who added that the agency would "pursue offenders' assets relentlessly." A compensation order has also been made for the victim in the case, and the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division has recovered more than £530 million through confiscation.