Thomas Jiřikovský suspected of owning the black marketplace Sheep Marketplace, an alternative for Silk Road, was arrested while trying to buy a luxury house.
The Operation Onymous and the seizure of the popular Silkroad black market have deeply influenced the underground ecosystem. The closure of Silkroad advantaged other black markets like Evolution and Sheep Marketplace. The Evolution Black Market, the most popular an online black marketplace appears to have vanished, it seems that admins of the website exit scamming, meanwhile authorities have arrested the alleged managed of the Sheep Marketplace. Sheep Marketplace was closed in November 2013 supposedly because unknown hackers stolen Bitcoin for a total of 40 Million dollars .
Shortly after the closure announcement of Sheep Marketplace, Thomas Jiřikovský was identified as a suspect of owning the website since he forgot to hide his identity and residence in the his Facebook page.
Thomas Jiřikovský always denied any involvement in the disappearance of the 40 Million dollars’ worth in bitcoins. While investigating the stolen 40 Million dollars’ worth in bitcoins, Czech police discovered that the programmer was attempting the buy a luxurious home worth 8.7 Million Czech Koruna ($345,000 USD) in a region of Czech Republic called Lusatia.
More investigations allowed the police to discover that a bank account in the name of Eva Bartošová received a payment of 900,000 Crowns from a foreign Bitcoin Money Exchange company. When asked about the money transfer, Eva Bartošová couldn’t explain the source of money.
Czech media added that Thomas Jiřikovský0s wife Eva Bartošová helped him to transfer the money stolen from the Sheep Marketplace.
Investigating furthermore it was discovered that the house was bought entirely with bitcoins.
I suspect that this will continue to happen again and again, and the prove of this is that recently it was reported that the popular web drug market Evolution suddenly vanished and with it nearly 12 Million dollars in Bitcoins disappeared.
About the Author Elsio Pinto
Edited by Pierluigi Paganini
(Security Affairs – Sheep Marketplace, black marketplace)
