Cryptocurrency was in the news this week because of the FTX fraud case. Before you think this is about a fraud case, no, no, no, it’s about murder-for-hire.
The woman who solicited the murder-for-hire paid the hired hitman with bitcoin (a.k.a. cryptocurrency) and cash. Who did she want killed? Her husband and possibly another person who “couldn’t mind her own business.”
The FBI's Violent Crime Squad received a tip about someone using an app and the dark web to hire a hitman. An FBI undercover Special Agent responded to her solicitation.
Their back-and-forth communication lasted two months. She provided detailed information about where and when her husband would be at a certain location. They agreed to $10,000 for one murder. She made payments with bitcoin and cash. They met in person, and she gave the ‘hitman’ photos of her husband and his vehicle.
After they had gathered enough evidence, the FBI and local law enforcement went to her place of employment and told her that her husband was dead (he wasn’t). She tried to appear devastated. Then they arrested her. Later, the owner of the business gave permission to the FBI for them to search her work computer, which they determined was the device used in the crime.
At the bond hearing, the federal judge said,
“The bottom line is the evidence is heavy the defendant did hire a hitman to murder her husband.”
Before the judge denied bail, the Assistant U.S. Attorney added,
“She poses a danger to at least one person.”
During the analysis of the work computer, they found that someone had deleted historical searches after the arrest. A co-worker who she’d been having an affair with had aided her in trying to delete incriminating evidence. He also helped her financially pay for an attorney. I found nothing to show they’d filed charges against him.
Rather than go to trial, the woman pleaded guilty to using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire. Her attorney asked for leniency, suggesting alternative measures like living with her parents, following a curfew, not using a computer, and wearing an ankle monitor instead of going to jail. He said she has severe migraines and an autoimmune disorder. She needs weekly injections that they won't provide in prison.
In court, an Assistant U.S. Attorney associated with the case said,
“What we have here is a methodical plan to kill her husband.”
The judge gave the 40-year-old woman the maximum sentence for the crime - 10 years in prison, a $1,000 fine, and three years of supervised release.
Source: U.S. District Court, U. S. Department of Justice, Law & Crime, Oxygen True Crime, WLBT3
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