Miami feds rain down heavily on identity thief: Seize Bitcoin worth $34 million

TL;DR Breakdown

• Federal authorities in South Florida rained down heavily on a Parkland resident.
• The authorities have successfully seized more than $34 in Bitcoin
• This is one of the biggest amounts that feds have seized in Miami and the US.

Miami, a city known for people living an extravagant lifestyle and its Bitcoin-friendly laws and mayor, has seen one of the biggest crackdowns on fraudsters involving cryptocurrencies. As per the report from Denver Gazette, the authorities successfully seized around $34 million in Bitcoin from a Parkland resident, marking one of the biggest crackdowns involving crypto.

Miami feds convicts ID theft

The Miami Parkland resident was responsible for “using the internet to sell people’s account information that had been hacked from HBO, Netflix, and Uber, among other popular services,” as per the report covered in the Denver Gazette. The officers involved in the case confirmed that they were able to seize the crypto assets from the Parkland suspects following the default ruling in Miami federal court.

It is also important to note that the authorities did not reveal the details of the person responsible for this act except for the fact that he used the “Darknet” in order to “carry out more than 100,000 fraudulent computer transactions between 2015 and 2017,” as per the report covered in the Denver Gazzette.

Lack of evidence

As per the report and the court filings, there was a lack of evidence regarding the crimes committed by the person. Therefore, the Miami feds decided to track the cryptocurrency holdings of the Parkland resident, whose home was searched, but no strict evidence turned out.

At the beginning of the case, the Bitcoin holdings in question were worth $47 million, and due to the fall in prices of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency in the last six months, the current worth of the holdings is $34 million.

Dark Web marketplaces are specifically designed to facilitate illegal commerce by working to ensure the anonymity of its administrators, as well as the buyers and sellers who participate in commerce on the website

The prosecutors explained.

Another important part to note here is that the Miami feds called the case “Operation TORnado” and involved officers from the FBI, Internal Revenue Service, and Homeland Security Investigations.