This month, twelve individuals connected to a series of armed bitcoin thefts received sentences; among them was a man from Florida who was given a 47-year prison sentence for his part in the violent house invasions.
Court filings state that the group started off with classic crypto theft, breaking into victims’ accounts by using a tactic known as SIM-swapping, in which hackers obtain access to a target’s phone by deceiving their service provider.
Starting in 2020, Jarod Seemungal of West Palm Beach and a few accomplices performed the SIM swaps, and Wired claims they were successful in stealing over $3 million from a single victim. But in 2022, Seemungal determined that committing physical robberies would be profitable for the gang, so he enlisted Remy St. Felix, a fellow Floridian, to head a team that would carry out home invasions.
Seemungal was given a 20-year prison sentence, while St. Felix was found guilty on nine counts “relating to conspiracy, kidnapping, Hobbs Act robbery, wire fraud, and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of crimes of violence” and was given a 47-year sentence.
The group’s violent acts, which included kidnapping, torture, and ransom demands, were startling.
According to Wired, the group once targeted a fellow SIM swapper that Seemungal believed had embezzled cryptocurrency from him the year before. They chained his hands, placed him into their rented car, and began extorting his loved ones before the man was able to escape.
An employee of Seemungal would breach individuals’ email accounts to access their cryptocurrency holdings, assisting the group in identifying profitable targets.
In their most recent successful heist, St. Felix and his accomplice Elmer Ruben Castro forced their way into the home of an elderly couple in North Carolina by posing as construction workers checking pipes.
The husband was coerced into installing AnyDesk remote access software, which Seemungal used to pilfer cryptocurrency valued at over $150,000.
“The victims in this case suffered a horrible, painful experience that no citizen should have to endure,” said U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston for the Middle District of North Carolina at the time of St. Felix’s conviction in June. “The defendant and his co-conspirators acted purely out of greed and callously terrorized those they targeted. The jury’s verdict in this case represents a vital step in securing justice for these victims.”
TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence company, claims that the group’s careless attempt to hide their tracks was ultimately what brought them down. The FBI was able to connect the gunman and other collaborators to four accounts that included bitcoin and ethereum that had been laundered from the crime in North Carolina.
Prosecutors claim that St. Felix was apprehended in July 2023 while en route to another home invasion in New York and that thirteen other conspirators have already entered guilty pleas. On October 1, two of the guys are up for sentencing.
Concerns have been raised recently about the connection between SIM-swapping and violence, as teenage hackers have been using Molotov cocktails and violent altercations to settle scores with one another.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed new regulations late last year mandating that wireless carriers put in place stronger safeguards against SIM-swapping. Among other things, the regulations require the carriers to “notify customers whenever a SIM change or port-out request is made on customers’ accounts.”
Also read: Unveiling the Ethical Imperatives: Navigating the Intersection of AI and Cybersecurity
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