On April 4, 2022, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of South Florida revealed that law enforcement seized $34 million in crypto assets from an unidentified man living in Florida. According to the DOJ, the man allegedly conducted more than 100,000 sales on darknet markets, selling online account information tied to people’s Netflix, HBO, and Uber accounts.
DOJ Seizes $34 Million in Digital Assets From Florida Resident Accused of Selling Stolen Online Information Through the Deep Web
The DOJ and the South Florida U.S. Attorney’s Office announced on Monday that $34 million in cryptocurrencies had been confiscated from the federal government. The funds come from a South Florida resident who allegedly sold information online such as financial details related to specific web services such as Netflix, Uber, HBO and many more.
Reportedly, the man took the private information to darknet markets on the deep web using the privacy-enhancing Tor browser and sold the data for crypto. The unidentified man is accused of conducting more than 100,000 sales with stolen information. While the federal authorities seized the $34 million in digital assets, the suspect from the suburban city of Parkland, Florida was not named or charged in the official press release.
US law enforcement said it was “one of the largest cryptocurrency confiscation actions ever brought by the United States.” According to the DOJ press release, the unidentified Parkland suspect allegedly used “tumblers”, “crypto mixers” and “chain hopping” to conceal his earnings. The DOJ says the man used mixers and chain hopping to “hide the original funding source.”
‘Operation TORnado’
The forfeiture action stemmed from a special operation dubbed “TORnado,” and it involves a great number of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. In addition to the DOJ, the “RS-CI, FBI, DEA, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) investigated the case” as well.
US law enforcement, especially the DOJ, has been busy with various criminal cases involving digital assets lately. In late March, the DOJ revealed that the agency had charged two people in a $1 million “NFT rug pull” scam.
In mid-November 2021, the DOJ was dealing with the sale of $56 million in seized Bitconnect funds stemming from the crypto Ponzi’s “number one promoter.” The DOJ was also involved with the recent seizure of 94,636 BTC that came from the 2016 Bitfinex hack.
