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The Real Crime Diary Blog Property and Financial Crimes How To Steal And Lose More Than $3 Billion In Bitcoin | CNBC Documentary
Property and Financial Crimes

How To Steal And Lose More Than $3 Billion In Bitcoin | CNBC Documentary

  • by
  • July 5, 2024
  • 40 Comments
  • 1 minute read
  • 7 Views
  • 3 days ago



Twenty two year-old hacker Jimmy Zhong said he never meant to become a criminal billionaire. But that’s what happened in 2012 after he found a way to steal bitcoin from the Silk Road – a dark web exchange then known for some of the most unsavory trade on the internet – drugs, guns and porn. Over the next decade, the coins Zhong stole rocketed in value, ultimately reaching an eye-watering $3.36 billion.

Photos show Zhong on yachts, in front of airplanes, and at big time football games over the decade he confounded law enforcement officers trying to solve the theft. He even bought a weekend lake house to use as a party pad, and decorated it with a giant Trump flag and a stripper pole. But then, Zhong made a phone call that ruined his life.

In this documentary, CNBC’s Eamon Javers speaks exclusively with the IRS-CI, the agency that investigated this billion dollar crime as well as the people who knew Zhong during the decade he evaded law enforcement. Javers’ reporting also uncovers a long, digital trail that leads back to the earliest days of bitcoin and reveals a dark truth about the world of hackers and coders responsible for the creation of bitcoin.

Chapters:
00:00 — Introduction
01:18 — Panic Attack
10:28 — The Raid
20:09 — Original Gangster

Correspondent: Eamon Javers
Investigative Producer: Paige Tortorelli
Senior Investigative Producer: Scott Zamost
Senior Field Producer: Bria Cousins
Senior Executive Producer: Ray Parisi
Editor: Candice Goldman
Graphic Artist: Michael Schwartz
Photojournalists: Oscar Molina, Marco Mastrorilli, Alex Herrera, Gerard Miller, Leroy Jackson, David Grogan, Tara McCurrie, and Alex Bedoya
Audio: Juan Merlo, Everette Wong, Peter Redding, and Francesco LoCascio

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How To Steal And Lose More Than $3 Billion In Bitcoin | CNBC Documentary

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40 Comments

  • Reply
    @burnedrisotto July 5, 2024

    I’ll never understand why IRS agents need to be armed. 🤷‍♂️

  • Reply
    @HUAIREN666 July 5, 2024

    I think Jimmy is smart enough to not keep all his eggs in one basket 😉 Good luck bro 👍

  • Reply
    @monkeyking-self-proclaimed7050 July 5, 2024

    10K, she needs to pay her taxes.

  • Reply
    @AliceAnderson-in1et July 5, 2024

    You work for 40yrs to have $1m in your retirement, Meanwhile some people are putting just $10k in a meme coin for just few months and now they are multi millionaires. I pray that anyone who reads this will be successful in life

  • Reply
    @Lordofpips July 5, 2024

    If the bitcoin he stole was worth $15 and the owner of the site he stole it on told him to keep it, this video wouldnt have existed

  • Reply
    @Carlos-ku3mk July 5, 2024

    watched the whole video and can tell you
    Jimmy is a good guy. Government was a clear hater

  • Reply
    @damiloaawobajo2359 July 5, 2024

    This guy is a fool😭

  • Reply
    @shawnessysutton3662 July 5, 2024

    What does it matter I you have a billion I cash at your home isn't that your business

  • Reply
    @shawnessysutton3662 July 5, 2024

    Your money isn't your money

  • Reply
    @bellacottobella8284 July 5, 2024

    The biggest criminals is the government and who work for them ,not him !

  • Reply
    @bellacottobella8284 July 5, 2024

    The criminals are the irs and the cops !

  • Reply
    @heistobe4138 July 5, 2024

    That thief was the cannon event of jimmy zhong

  • Reply
    @187mrsmith July 5, 2024

    The government hates competition lets not act like the government doesn't support secret drug wars don't forget the contra scandal the General of all the armys was the head of it oliver north!
    Government stays using us as pawns!

  • Reply
    @circleofattention6021 July 5, 2024

    So let me get this straight… lonely guy gets bullied and steals 3 billion from a criminal website. Then, lonely guy spends a lot of this money to try to make friends, but he gets caught. Finally, the lonely guy only gets one year in jail because his dog was sick, not to mention his only friend which makes the story sad and excuses stealing 3 billion dollars…

  • Reply
    @herbertcousins1885 July 5, 2024

    Outstanding work Bria

  • Reply
    @herbertcousins1885 July 5, 2024

    Bria’s Vitcom Documentary

  • Reply
    @1372ernesto July 5, 2024

    Ok now the question is,,,, where or what is use that money once in the hands of the government, since they say that it was corrupt money????????😮

  • Reply
    @sid3549 July 5, 2024

    Seems like the government are the theves robed zong of his assets

  • Reply
    @jeffhalla777 July 5, 2024

    Dam irs agents are just looking for a scape goat

  • Reply
    @jeffhalla777 July 5, 2024

    I love the trump sign in his living room

  • Reply
    @jeffhalla777 July 5, 2024

    Ar15 is LEGAL!

  • Reply
    @blinkybit July 5, 2024

    Had he never heard of lawyers before?

  • Reply
    @shawnriese4374 July 5, 2024

    Poor Chad 😔

  • Reply
    @texashunter July 5, 2024

    AR15’s are meant to “ready to go” and completely legal

  • Reply
    @virgilkane7369 July 5, 2024

    Jimmy Zhong was smart enough to steal 50 thousand bitcoin yet he is not smart enough to hang onto it simply because he was greedy . What a moron .

  • Reply
    @bhawnakashyap4053 July 5, 2024

    Ans-8

  • Reply
    @hippocratesm.d.1543 July 5, 2024

    Stupid kid, save the money invest it and lay low

  • Reply
    @MarkPineLife July 5, 2024

    If you spend a lot of money in a downtown area, a lot of people are going to tell police on you.

  • Reply
    @DanielLimbirdman July 5, 2024

    Fed sold off unclaimed BTC, i see where there dump came from.

  • Reply
    @MarlonjMusic July 5, 2024

    Smart but stupid at the same time

  • Reply
    @modernminimalist1 July 5, 2024

    Always be suspicious when the FBI bombs you with flattery 😅He honestly doesn't seem like a bad guy, just lonely.

  • Reply
    @MyTube4Utoo July 5, 2024

    "Only a few friends knew where it was." The thing is, even one is one too many. You show one person, and even if they don't rip you off they'll be telling others, "You won't believe what that guy has in his house!" Eventually, someone will be more than happy to take it off your hands.

    I'd rather have seen Jimmy be able to keep the Bitcoin rather than the corrupt, less-than-worthless federal government get it.

    I'd be willing to bet that a guy as smart as Jimmy still has an ace in the hole……somewhere. I know I would. Something, someplace other than his home. A backpack stuffed with $100 dollar bills, a bunch of 10-ounce gold bars, some Bitcoin in a wallet that was never discovered, or maybe some of all of the above. The thing about Bitcoin is, he could have went to prison with a seedphrase in his head and been carrying millions of dollars in his brain. They said he was laundering it using a mixer, so they wouldn't have known how many wallets he was using, or the addresses, and almost certainly couldn't have accounted for everything, not the way Jimmy was spending money. I don't think they said the exact dollar amount that was recovered. With $3.2 billion, a few million is little more than a rounding error.

    Good Luck, Jimmy.

  • Reply
    @TonyMontana-ks3qh July 5, 2024

    Jimmy is an idiot…. Simply put

  • Reply
    @realscott2954 July 5, 2024

    No one feels sorry for him he’s just as guilty as anyone else

  • Reply
    @cubajason4700 July 5, 2024

    I’m in shock that they solved the other robbery that was harder than just looking for a guy that broke into his house. But of course the big money was there so they went for it so they could keep it all. We can’t even count on police nowadays

  • Reply
    @Clarkthefaceofwnba July 5, 2024

    From what he was doing he should have let that money slide

  • Reply
    @Guitar4life99 July 5, 2024

    Ah yes, stealing from the criminals which the government wants 😂😂

  • Reply
    @Isaacaguilar30 July 5, 2024

    I think this is unfair, he took the money from criminals and spent it on his community, now the IRS steals the money and wastes it on wars and BS. 😮

  • Reply
    @hakimhayashi July 5, 2024

    As someone got bullied back in middle school, and being not "hot dude", I deeply feel bad for me. He just wanted to be needed like others but he was too clumsy to make friends. So he trying with his skills and money. I remember now have read this on web but that was crazy how none of Japanese media talked about this back then when I was in Japan…Hope he found his better way now Jimmy.

  • Reply
    @elalemanpaisa July 5, 2024

    A gangster robbing Gangsters who just can't get enough

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