Sheep Marketplace
Type of site | Darknet market |
---|---|
Available in | English |
URL | sheep5u64fi457aw.onion (defunct)[1] |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | Required |
Launched | March 2013 |
Current status | Offline |
Sheep Marketplace was an anonymous marketplace set up as a
Bitcoin theft incident
In December 2013 Sheep Marketplace announced that one of the site's vendors exploited a vulnerability to steal 5,400 bitcoins, valued at about $6 million at the time.
Victims of the theft have attempted to identify the thief by sending "tagged" bitcoins to his accounts, using the public nature of bitcoin transactions to follow the coins through the
In May 2016 two men from Florida, then 21-year-old students Sean Mackert and Nathan Gibson, were arrested after tracing Bitcoin transactions via Coinbase.[12] Subsequently, the pair pled guilty to the crime of Bitcoin wire fraud on Sheep Marketplace in 2018 and are now facing a maximum prison time of up to twenty years.[13] About $4 million worth of Bitcoin stolen by Mackert and Gibson has since been seized by the United States Federal government.[14] The overwhelming evidence found against Sean Mackert and Nathan Gibson in which they were found to be guilty beyond reasonable doubt also exonerated other persons of interests in the case since the allegations of theft against the latter were found to be baseless and the evidence unsatisfying. Thus, the case is closed.
References
- ^ "Sheep Marketplace | Deep Dot Web". Archived from the original on 8 July 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
- ^ Adrianne Jeffries (29 April 2013). "Drugs, porn, and counterfeits: the market for illegal goods is booming online". The Verge. Archived from the original on 28 September 2017. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
- ^ "Dark marketplace closes after theft of £3m in bitcoins". BBC. 2 December 2013. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
- ^ Mandala, Ravi (1 December 2013). "Silk Road-like Sheep Marketplace scams users; over 39k Bitcoins worth $40 million stolen". Techie News. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
- ^ a b Green berg, Andy (1 December 2013). "Silk Road Competitor Shuts Down And Another Plans To Go Offline After Claimed $6 Million Theft". Forbes. Archived from the original on 26 May 2017. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
- ^ a b Hern, Alex (3 December 2013). "Online drugs marketplace shut down after £3.5m bitcoin hack". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 21 April 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
- ^ "Block chain record". Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
- Daily Dot. Archivedfrom the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
- ^ Edwards, Jim (3 December 2013). "A Thief Is Attempting To Hide $100 Million In Stolen Bitcoins — And You Can Watch It Live Right Now". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 7 December 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
- ^ "I just Chased him through a bitcoin tumbler, and when he Came out with 96,000 BTC, I was Waiting for Him..." Reddit. 1 December 2013. Archived from the original on 21 July 2017. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
- ^ Alex Hern. "Recovering stolen bitcoin: a digital wild goose chase | Technology". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
- ^ Shin, Laura. "Mystery Solved: $6.6 Million Bitcoin Theft That Brought Down Dark Web Site Tied To 2 Florida Men". Forbes. Archived from the original on 9 September 2017. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
- ^ Scanlan, Dan. "Forefeited [sic] funds seized from 2 Jacksonville men awarded to agencies that helped investigate bitcoin theft". The Florida Times-Union. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
- ^ "More Than $1.7 Million In Forfeited Funds Presented To Law Enforcement Agencies". www.justice.gov. 17 January 2018. Archived from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.