NCA officer stole millions in Bitcoin from dark web drug dealer

A Bristol-based National Crime Agency officer who stole Bitcoin from a dark web drug dealer has been ordered to pay back £1.8million.

Dad-of-three Paul Chowles was part of the team which brought internet criminal Thomas White down. But before police arrested him, Chowles seized the opportunity to steal 50 Bitcoin from his mark.

This stolen cryptocurrency was worth £60,000 at the time of the theft, but its value has since ballooned to more than £4million.

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Last July Chowles admitted theft, transferring criminal property and concealing criminal property at Liverpool Crown Court and was jailed for five-and-a-half years.

And yesterday the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) secured a confiscation order against him for the sum of £1,810,678.93, which included the total value of recovered 30 Bitcoin.

Failure to pay could result in further jail time. The money - if paid up by Chowles - will go towards a similar confiscation order in place against White.

Luke Clements, of the CPS proceeds of crime division, said: "Paul Chowles exploited a position of trust for personal gain, stealing assets that had already been recovered through law enforcement action.

"Confiscation orders are a powerful tool in ensuring that crime does not pay. Today's order sends a clear message that we 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."

Last year's sentencing hearing was told Chowles, a former intelligence analyst and unit manager, was said to have believed he had "gotten away with" his crimes for years, quietly spending his ill-gotten gains on day-to-day expenses rather than expensive cars or exotic holidays.

His brazen scheme was ultimately only revealed when White was released from prison and pointed out the missing coins to police.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Chowles was one of nine members of a digital forensics team which conducted investigations into White, who took over the 'Silk Road' website under a new guise, Silk Road 2.0, after the original website was shut down by the FBI in 2013. This led to the National Crime Agency (NCA) seizing a USB stick containing 97 Bitcoin from his apartment in Liverpool as part of their operation.

But Craig Hassall KC, prosecuting, described how this digital wallet, which White had named his "retirement wallet", remained in the NCA's charge for more than two years until May 2017, when Chowles surreptitiously transferred 50 of the cryptocurrency into his own control. The 42-year-old was able to do so using a dark web "mixing service" called Bitcoin Fog, which allowed him to disguise the source of these funds, before he moved the currency into private accounts.

Chowles, the "very technically minded" arresting officer and lead officer in the initial case, went on to spend £140,000 of the proceeds of the theft in supermarkets, at "eating and drinking establishments" and on building work and nursery fees. A portion of the missing cryptocurrency was later recovered from Chowles' computer, with further quantities having been cashed in.

While the value of 50 Bitcoin at the time of the theft was said to have amounted to £59,409.90, the value is now around £4million.

Chowles was arrested at the NCA's Bristol hub in May 2022, with several notebooks which were seized from his office drawers containing usernames and passwords associated with White's cryptocurrency accounts.