After his prison sentence, Paul Chowles now faces an order targeting the proceeds of Bitcoin he stole during the Silk Road 2.0 investigation. Prosecutors included the value of recovered cryptocurrency in the confiscation amount.
Former National Crime Agency (NCA) officer Paul Chowles has been ordered to pay £1,810,678.93 in a confiscation case stemming from his theft of 50 Bitcoin from a seized wallet. The Crown Prosecution Service’s September 30, 2026 statement announces a new asset recovery order following his prison sentence last year.
Chowles worked on analysing digital devices and extracting cryptocurrency during the investigation into the illicit online marketplace Silk Road 2.0. Prosecutors said he used that access to transfer assets to himself and then attempted to conceal the trail through cryptocurrency transactions. A total of 30 Bitcoin was subsequently recovered from him.
The order includes the value of 30 recovered Bitcoin
The CPS said the stolen 50 Bitcoin was worth approximately £60,000 at the time of the theft. The increase in Bitcoin’s market price over the intervening years also raised the value of the recovered assets.
The £1.8 million and 30 Bitcoin are not separate amounts to add together. The recovered coins’ value is included in the order. The statement does not say that the entire sum ordered has already been collected in cash.
Luke Clements, a specialist prosecutor in the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, described the abuse of trust in the written statement:
“Paul Chowles exploited a position of trust for personal gain, stealing assets that had already been recovered through law enforcement action.”
Asset recovery follows the prison sentence
The case began years before this order. According to the CPS’s July 16, 2025 account of the prosecution, the 50 Bitcoin left the seized wallet in two transactions on May 6–7, 2017. The wallet belonged to Silk Road 2.0 operator Thomas White. Suspicion initially fell on White, who said the NCA held the private keys needed to access the assets.
Chowles was arrested in May 2022. After admitting theft and offences involving criminal property, he was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court to five years and six months in prison in July 2025. The latest order targets assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002; it is not a new prison sentence.
The case also shows why seizure alone does not guarantee secure custody. Control of a wallet’s private key gives its holder the ability to authorise transactions. The theft described by prosecutors arose from an investigator’s misuse of access, rather than a breach of the Bitcoin network itself.
There is a further detail about where the recovered money is to go. The CPS said a compensation order had been made for the victim, but the funds would be applied towards that victim’s own outstanding confiscation order.
