DNP seller was told he had to pay back money he earned from crimes

A man convicted in England of selling a drug marketed as a weight-loss drug has been forced to hand over £23,000 ($29,700).

The amount Jack Finney, 28, had to repay included the cryptocurrency Monero, which the Food Standards Agency (FSA) sold for £15,000 ($19,400), including £2,800 ($3,600) that will be paid back to the FSA.

Monero cryptocurrency is a privacy coin that cannot be tracked and traced. This is the first time that a case prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has resulted in Monero’s conversion.

Operation Atlas was a Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 investigation that led to a confiscation order against Finney, who was convicted of supplying DNP (2,4-dinitrophenol), class C drugs in the form of steroids and other controlled substances medicines, and medicines that are only available by prescription. medicines.

Dangers of DNP

Finney was jailed for 28 months in December 2021 after pleading guilty at Chester Crown Court to offenses including selling DNP, a highly toxic industrial chemical that he sold on the dark web as a diet pill for weight loss. DNP can cause serious damage to health and has resulted in at least 33 deaths in the UK. It was classified as a poison by the Ministry of the Interior in October 2023.

A financial investigator from the FSA’s National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) worked with the CPS to take Finney to court and used the Proceeds of Crime Act to repay him the money he had earned.

“We welcome the court’s decision to force Jack Finney to hand over the £23,000 he made from selling deadly substances on the dark web and we hope this sends a strong message to everyone who wants to profit from illegal sales,” the spokesperson said. Andrew Quinn, head of the NFCU.

“The NFCU works closely with local authorities and other law enforcement agencies in the UK and abroad. Together, we will continue to prosecute and bring to justice those who endanger the public and break the law.”

Get money back

The court found that the amount Finney earned from the offense was more than £180,000 ($232,000) but ordered him to pay back £23,000 as this was the total available at the time. If he gets more money, lawyers from the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division could take him to court to get the remaining amount. If he had not paid, eight months would have been added to the sentence.

Adrian Foster, chief prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “It has taken a number of years to get full justice, but we have ensured that Jack Finney will never see the £23,000 he made from selling deadly so-called weight-loss drugs and anabolic steroids. the dark web.

“This is the first case where we have converted Monero currency into cash. This shows that criminals cannot hide their money in cryptocurrencies in the hope that it will be safe from the authorities.”

Detective Sergeant David MacFarlane, from Cheshire Police’s Cyber ​​Crime Unit, said: “As has been demonstrated throughout this joint operation, strong action will be taken against those who choose to profit from putting members of the public at risk with the illegal sale of deadly substances. This case should act as a deterrent to those who think they can get away with committing these types of offenses – crime doesn’t pay.”

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