Peter Ward, AKA PlutoPete, Is Trying To Legally Reclaim Bitcoins From FBI's Silk Road Seizure
Back in October many of the trolls and ents of Reddit muttered and mumbled to themselves about joining together in a class action lawsuit to claim pieces of the 29000 Bitcoins seized by the FBI on October 2nd, 2013. The 29,000 Bitcoins taken from Silk Road servers on that day belonged to the international motley crew of buyers and sellers on Silk Road. Many of those Bitcoins were tied up in escrow in ongoing deals, or simply sitting in the accounts of buyers and sellers waiting for withdrawal or use. Nothing came of all the hubbub raised by Silk Road users about their Bitcoins being swept....
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In the huge amount of bitcoin that the United States Federal Government is holding, one man feels his bit of digital money is being held captive: and he wants it back. Peter Ward of the United Kingdom has reportedly begun the process of putting a lawyer on retainer in order to file a claim for about $95,000 worth of bitcoins - about 100 BTC. The money was taken during the Silk Road seizure last year, and Ward says he made it through entirely legal means. See, Ward sells things like rolling papers, bongs, and vaporizers. He's even got his own public online shop called Planet-Pluto. "I'm....
Former Silk Road merchant Peter Ward has announced his intention to hire a lawyer and file a claim for 100 bitcoins that he says were wrongly taken by the government during its seizure of online black market bazaar Silk Road. The owner of Planet Pluto - a head shop in Devon, England, Ward says he earned the bitcoin - worth $85,000 at press time - lawfully, through the sale of drug accessories such as bongs, marijuana seeds and rolling papers, items he sells successfully online through other outlets. Speaking to Forbes, Ward suggested that he has the ability to prove his transactions on the....
Peter Ward argues that the 100 Bitcoins seized from him in the US government’s raid on the Silk Road last year were taken unlawfully, and he has announced a plan to lawyer up and try to get them back. Ward, the owner of a head shop in Devon, England, sold bongs and rolling papers on the Silk Road, the same things he currently sells in his Planet Pluto shop. He told Forbes that he can prove all of his transactions were legal and thus were not subject to forfeiture. Ward was also arrested in his home by the UK’s National Crime Agency, whose agents confiscated a personal stash of marijuana....
Two U.K. men who pleaded guilty to selling drugs on the Silk Road Marketplace website were each sentenced to five years in jail, according to The Express & Star in the U.K. Richard Hiley worked with Peter Ward, who was reported to be a major figure on the dark web and used the name PlutoPete. Ward commissioned Hiley, a former customer, to transfer bitcoins into cash. The duo claimed to be running a legitimate business offering legal highs. Ward called himself a “psychonaut,” specializing in military-grade foil packaging that could hide illegal materials from detection. Ward also....
The man who stole over 50,000 bitcoins from the Silk Road marketplace has pleaded guilty. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, “the seizure was then the largest cryptocurrency seizure” in the history of the DOJ and “remains the department’s second-largest financial seizure ever.”
Silk Road Exploiter Pleads Guilty
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Monday that James Zhong pleaded guilty on Friday “to committing wire fraud in September 2012 when he unlawfully obtained over 50,000 bitcoin from the Silk Road dark web....