The Justice Department said it was seeking the forfeiture of the cryptocurrency, which had been in the possession of an unnamed hacker who stole them from the website. It is the largest cryptocurrency seizure ever made by the US government, as the department said.
The government will now try to prove in court the items are subject to forfeiture. In the past, the government has later auctioned off forfeited cryptocurrency. Silk Road was seized by the government in 2013, with officials describing the underground website as a large illegal drug and money laundering marketplace.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now
We welcome comments that add value to the discussion. We attempt to block comments that use offensive language or appear to be spam, and our editors frequently review the comments to ensure they are appropriate. If you see a comment that you believe is inappropriate to the discussion, you can bring it to our attention by using the report abuse links. As the comments are written and submitted by visitors of the The Paypers website, they in no way represent the opinion of The Paypers.