Man faces 18 years in prison for stealing 40,000 bitcoins

This week, the operator of the notorious dark web marketplace Sheep Marketplace was indicted for theft by prosecutors in the Czech Republic. The suspect, Thomas Jiřikovský, faces up to 18 years in prison for gun trafficking, theft, and drug trafficking.

Similar to Silk Road, Sheep Marketplace was once a very popular dark web market, but it only existed for a few months.

In March 2015, Thomas Jiřikovský was arrested in the Czech Republic and was said to have stolen millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin from the dark web market Sheep Marketplace. Back in 2013, the operator of Sheep Marketplace announced the closure of the site after claiming that a vendor had stolen $6 million worth of Bitcoin.

“We are sorry to hear that we were robbed by our vendor EBOOK101 on November 21, 2013,” Sheep Marketplace explained at the time. “This vendor discovered a vulnerability in our system and stole 5,400 BTC, including your money and ours. All funds were stolen.”

According to local Czech media reports, Jiřikovský and his wife Eve (who is said to be a programmer for Sheep Marketplace) will be sentenced in the near future. "Jiřikovský faces 10 to 18 years in prison," said Hynek Olma, a spokesman for the Czech local prosecutor's office.

“We prosecuted him for illegal production and handling of narcotic and psychotropic drugs, theft and illegal possession of firearms,” Olma said.

Jiřikovský's wife Eve faces three to eight years in prison, according to Olma.

Sheep Marketplace accomplice arrested in Florida last year

In May 2016, the US police also arrested two people related to the Jiřikovský couple, Nathan Gibson and Sean Mackert, who were trying to convert their Bitcoin into legal currency through Coinbase, but were caught on the spot by the Florida government agency. At that time, Coinbase received a court subpoena and revealed that Gibson had deposited more than 842 BTC in the Coinbase platform.

Jiřikovský was arrested by Czech police while he was buying a house near Hodonín, Czech Republic. Prosecutors detailed the seized Bitcoin and computers. The Jiřikovský couple kept a large amount of money at their grandfather's house, but the police still searched for this part of the funds. According to the reviewer, Jiřikovský and Eve used Bitstamp to trade their Bitcoin.

Involved in the theft of 40,000 BTC, one of the largest Bitcoin thefts in history

Sheep Marketplace is considered one of the largest scams in the history of darknet markets, and its operators are accused of stealing 40,000 BTC from customers. A week before the $6 million theft from Sheep Marketplace was exposed, Sheep Marketplace users complained that the platform had suspended withdrawals. After the announcement, the site was shut down and the operators took away all the customer funds.

So far, Czech prosecutors have not disclosed how they will deal with the seized property and the remaining bitcoins.