Cybercriminals are well used to hacking the online accounts of crypto owners to steal their DeFi wealth. However, another gang, until recently, has been sending real, down-to-earth criminals to break into crypto owners’ homes, threaten and beat them, and force them to hand over their digital currency.
Last week, the Department of Justice announced the convictions of most members of that gang. One of the gang’s leaders, Remy Ra St Felix, 25, was sentenced to 47 years in prison for his role in the violent robbery. The government said that, over a nearly two-year period, the gang stole more than $3.5 million from various victims through a combination of “violent home invasions,” as well as online SIM swapping schemes.
In another disturbing incident, the men broke into a home in North Carolina, and “violently beat” the couple who lived there. Ars Technica notes that the men first came to the home dressed as construction workers, saying they wanted to inspect the local plumbing. After they put the case in the back of the house, they went inside and threatened the couple with guns. After attacking the man and threatening to sexually assault his wife, the men begged him to go to his computer and open his Coinbase account. It was then that cybercriminals linked to the conspiracy took control of the victim’s account using AnyDesk remote access software and began transferring his entire account to accounts controlled by the gang. Eventually the men were able to squeeze $156,853 from the man’s account before Coinbase stopped their transfer efforts. After stealing the digital goods, the gang members left the couple, and went to report the break-in to the neighbors.
For their violent use of the system, the two home invasion men received $22,267.65. Meanwhile, the remaining $112,000 was divided among other criminals connected to the gang.
The men carried out other home invasions in Delray Beach and Homestead, Florida, and Little Elm, Texas, and had planned more in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida, as well as Georgia. “In every conspiracy, the conspirators communicate via secret messages to plan their crimes,” the government wrote. “They identified targets and discussed how to get into homes, the tools needed to commit the crime, the technical aspects of cryptocurrency, and the life patterns of their targets. They also distributed pictures of those who intend to come and the homes of those who intend to do it.”
Despite the sophisticated, mafia-style tactics of the men, it seems they don’t understand how easy it is for the feds to track crypto money. In recent years, the government has developed advanced tools to track digital assets across the Internet. Despite this well-known fact, some of the criminals did not do much to cover their tracks. One of the home invaders opened a Coinbase account using a government ID on the day of the home invasion. And even though the hackers connected to the conspiracy sought to steal money through “enhanced anonymity” and other seemingly mysterious methods, the feds still managed to identify most of the conspirators.
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