One Gruesome Crypto Crime....

You may have seen in the news that a certain crypto millionaire has been charged with the kidnap and torture of an Italian businessman, who he allegedly helps in a Manhattan apartment for over two weeks, trying to get his crypto keys out of him.

The alleged crypto-criminal is one John Woeltz...

The allegedly kidnapped victim was one 28-year-old Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan and was apparently chosen simply because it was well-known that he'd done very well out of crypto and himself held millions of dollars worth of crypto assets.

NB the setting may have been a chic Manhattan townhouse, a typical luxury purchase anyone might make with their crypto millions, but the reality inside was pretty macabre... including a chainsaw which was presumably used to threaten the victim at some point.

The human weak point in crypto

Remember the old adage.... not your keys, not your crypto... well the downside is once you hand those keys over there is no getting your Bitcoin back, at least not in a decentralised way. And this means the key holder is open and vulnerable to this kind of brutal physical means of coercion.

And this isn't the only crypto-inspired crime out there.... kidnappings are increasingly ransomed in crypto and ransmoware attacks often demand crypto too. And once you've given your crypto away in the hope you're going to get your wife back or your computer unlocked it's very difficult for the police to trace the crypto you've given away!

I mean you could try and get your crypto back, but you'd be having to ask the authorities to chase it down for you and freeze and then redistribute funds, which kind of defeats the point of it being decentralised in the first place!

But the brute case above...?!?

I guess with the Woeltz case above, the fact that it was actually in-place, possibly with a trail of DNA and apparently polaroids, this means the police do have some physical evidence at least to possibly get justice.

But it's also a sharp reminder that if you do own a tonne of crypto, keep it to yourself!

Posted Using INLEO