A Florida man, aged 24, has been found guilty of orchestrating a scheme to steal cryptocurrency, which also involved acts of kidnapping and assault.
According to a recent press release issued by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Remy St. Felix, hailing from West Palm Beach, was the mastermind behind a criminal group that targeted crypto owners across multiple states between September 2022 and July 2023.
The DOJ revealed that St. Felix and his accomplices would break into homes, abduct the victims, and coerce them into accessing and emptying their cryptocurrency wallets. To accomplish this, St. Felix and his co-conspirators would hack into their targets’ email accounts and conduct physical surveillance in advance.
After successfully stealing the funds, they would then launder the money using privacy-focused digital assets like Monero (XMR), decentralized exchange platforms that lacked know-your-customer (KYC) regulations, and “instant exchanges.”
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, who heads the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, stated, “St. Felix and his co-conspirators ruthlessly targeted victims across the United States, subjecting them to violent home invasions, kidnappings, and robberies, all for the purpose of stealing cryptocurrency. Despite their attempts to obfuscate their activities through encrypted communication and anonymous financial transactions, our determined investigators and prosecutors were able to bring them to justice.”
In one particular incident in April 2023, St. Felix and an accomplice broke into a residence, restrained the occupants, threatened them at gunpoint, and made off with $150,000 worth of crypto assets.
St. Felix was apprehended in July 2023 while en route to carry out another home invasion, as reported by the DOJ. He has been convicted on nine charges and could potentially face a minimum prison sentence of seven years, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
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