A Florida man was sentenced to 47 years in prison for his leading role in a scheme involving a series of home invasion robberies targeting crypto.
A total of 12 men have been sentenced for their roles in the crimes, according to a news release from the US Department of Justice.
Remy Ra St Felix, 25, of West Palm Beach, and his co-conspirators stole more than $3.5 million in crypto from victims through SIM swapping and violent home invasions in which they held victims at gunpoint, assaulted them, and bound them with plastic cable ties.
Beginning in late 2020, St Felixâs co-conspirator, Jarod Gabriel Seemungal, 23, of West Palm Beach, and foreign co-conspirators stole crypto from victimsâ accounts at exchanges.
They obtained access to the accounts by gaining control of the victimsâ phone numbers through SIM swapping, a type of account takeover fraud that targets a weakness in two-factor authentication, with the second factor being a text message or call placed to a mobile telephone.
In 2022, Seemungal and his co-conspirators devised the home invasion scheme and recruited St Felix and others to assist. St Felix became the leader of the robbery crew.
In September 2022, St Felix and the others began a series of violent home invasions in Florida, holding victims at gunpoint, beating and abducting them.
Laundering
They forced victims to provide access to computers and crypto exchange accounts, stealing crypto and laundering the funds through anonymity-enhanced cryptocurrencies and decentralised finance platforms that did not conduct know-your-customer checks, the DOJ said.
The conspirators communicated via an encrypted messaging app to plan their crimes. They identified targets and discussed how to gain entry to homes, the tools required to carry out the crimes, the technical aspects of crypto, and the patterns of life of their targets.
Seemungal was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Other members of the crew have received terms of five to 20 years, with one man to be sentenced in October.