According to TechFlow, News.bitcoin reported that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that 12 defendants were sentenced for participating in a series of violent home invasions to steal cryptocurrencies.
Among them, Remy Ra St Felix from West Palm Beach, Florida, was sentenced to 47 years in prison for leading the incident. These crimes involved the theft of more than $3.5 million in digital assets, and the convicted persons included multiple criminals responsible for planning and executing the robberies, which spanned several states.
According to court records, St Felix and his co-conspirators used SIM swapping to gain control of victims’ phone numbers, which gave them access to cryptocurrency accounts. Once they had control of the accounts, they began robbing homes, tying up and threatening victims at gunpoint to gain access to computers and cryptocurrency exchange accounts, thereby stealing the cryptocurrency. “The conspirators laundered funds through anonymity-enhanced cryptocurrencies, as well as ‘instant exchanges’ and DEXs that do not conduct KYC,” the Justice Department added.
The main conspirator, Seemungal, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, 5 years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $4,038,479.39 in restitution. Seemungal pleaded guilty on December 19, 2023, to stealing cryptocurrency by hacking victims' cryptocurrency accounts, and home robbery. In total, nine accomplices received lengthy prison sentences for conspiracy to kidnap, while other key players were punished for their involvement.