Cryptsy founder charged with theft of more than $5 million in Bitcoin and Litecoin

TL;DR Breakdown

• Paul Vernon could face 20 years in prison if cryptocurrency theft is proven.
• Exchange Cryptsy lost about 11000 BTCs, according to the researchers.

About six years have passed since exchange Cryptsy CEO Paul Vernon denied stealing more than $5 million in Bitcoin and Litecoin.

Vernon, today filing multiple charges for asset theft and fraud, insists he had nothing to do with it. However, the evidence that the feds accumulated revealed the businessman’s evil plan.

Cryptocurrency theft at Cryptsy

Paul Vernon, known as Big Vern, is being prosecuted for several federal crimes related to the theft of over five million dollars in cryptocurrencies. Vernon founded the Cryptsy exchange under the ideals it would be the best exchange available in North America. However, by 2014 the platform was accused of tax evasion and recently stopped operating, but not before stealing much money in cryptos.

The prosecution of Cryptsy began in 2019 under a document with over seventeen pages, but it was not revealed until recently. According to investigations, the crypto platform was denounced for applying sophisticated theft methods during 2013 and 2015. The report indicates that Vernon stole the funds from the exchange, sent them to his crypto wallet, and eventually exchanged them for Fiat to transfer them to his bank account.

The feds seek to prosecute Vernon for the theft of five million dollars. If so, the businessman would serve 20 years in prison. Since 2019, Vernon has been taken as a fugitive before the United States federal agency.

Big Vern and his elaborate crypto heist

Big Vern, a nickname that Paul Vernon earned among his friends, elaborated one of the most complex robberies in cryptocurrencies using the Exchange Cryptsy. In 2014, Vernon informed his employees that the exchange had suffered from a robbery where the hacker extracted about five million dollars in BTC. However, this report did not reach exchange users until the following year.

In 2016 Vernon moved to Chinese territory to finally announce that the Cryptsy exchange would suspend its payments due to constant thefts. But Vernon found time to delete the platform’s data and thus prevent the crimes against him. Vernon was also accused of tax evasion before the American federal agency.

So far, the feds are trying to find the over 11 thousand Bitcoin stolen by Vernon from the exchange, but he has likely changed them to Fiat. Paul Vernon could be arrested after the agents finish collecting the evidence against him in the coming days.