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Durham Cryptocurrency Theft Case: Man Guilty in Greensboro
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WNCN) – A man was sentenced Tuesday for his role in a North Carolina armed home invasion and kidnapping of elderly Durham couple that drained more than $156,000 of their cryptocurrency in 2023, officials said.
The Durham crime occurred at gunpoint in the couple’s Wells Street home on the morning of April 12, after burglars posed as construction workers and forced their way into the home, according to the Police Department of Durham and FBI officials.
Remy St Felix, 24, of West Palm Beach, was convicted by a Greensboro jury on nine counts of conspiracy, kidnapping, Hobbs Act robbery, wire fraud and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, the U.S. Attorney for the District of North Carolina said.
An FBI criminal complaint filed last year in North Carolina alleged that the suspects, including Jarod Gabriel Seemungal, began as early as February 2023 targeting retirees who owned cryptocurrency, and that the accused men even had the number number plate of her husband’s car.
2 wanted after Durham couple robbed over $156,000 in cryptocurrencies during brutal home invasion
The U.S. attorney’s press release Tuesday and previous criminal complaints outlined the brutality of the kidnapping: with the elderly couple handcuffed with zip ties, the wife dragged across the floor by her feet, and threats made “to cut off the toes and genitals of the Husband”. , shoot him and rape his wife. The husband was shot in the head during the kidnapping.
“The victims in this case endured a horrific and painful experience that no citizen should have to endure,” said U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston for the Middle District of North Carolina.
A pink gun used during the home invasion, according to the FBI. FBI photo.
The suspects managed to transfer $156,853 worth of cryptocurrency over the next 45 minutes, the FBI said.
Messages exchanged between those involved identified the actual amounts of the cryptocurrencies and their locations, a criminal complaint states.
The two suspects also discussed in Internet messages how the potential victims “have so much” money in their accounts that they would be “retirement robberies” – the FBI explains in the complaint that “robbery” is a slang term for a robbery , the complaint reads.
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One suspect had a photo of her husband’s North Carolina driver’s license in his email account, the FBI said.
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St Felix, who will be sentenced in September, was arrested by the FBI in July 2023 on his way to commit a home invasion in New York, the press release said. Thirteen of St Felix’s conspirators, including members of his home invasion robbery team, were also arrested and later pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme.