A federal jury in North Carolina has found Florida man Remy St Felix guilty of orchestrating a series of violent home invasions aimed at stealing Bitcoin and other crypto assets from targeted victims.
The 24-year-old St Felix of West Palm Beach, Florida led a group that targeted cryptocurrency owners across multiple states between September 2022 and July 2023.
The robberies, which took place in Durham, North Carolina as well as locations in Florida, Texas, and New York, involved breaking into homes, kidnapping residents, and forcing them to transfer their cryptocurrency holdings.
In one particularly harrowing incident in April 2023, St Felix and an accomplice assaulted a victim in their own home, restraining them with zip ties and threatening violence against both the victim and their spouse. This attack resulted in the theft of over $150,000 in cryptocurrency.
The conviction comes at a time when cryptocurrency-related crimes remain a significant concern. According to Chainalysis, while the total value of stolen cryptocurrency decreased from $3.7 billion in 2022 to $1.7 billion in 2023, the number of individual hacking incidents actually increased from 219 to 231 over the same period.
But the crimes of St Felix and his crew introduce a real-world element of danger, as they employed sophisticated methods to identify and target victims, including unauthorized access to email accounts and physical surveillance. They also used encryption and anonymous financial transactions in an attempt to avoid detection.
The FBI played a crucial role in bringing St Felix to justice, according to the Department of Justice’s announcement, arresting him in July 2023 as he was en route to commit another home invasion in New York.
Thirteen of his co-conspirators have already pleaded guilty for their involvement in the scheme. The jury found St Felix guilty on nine counts, including conspiracy, kidnapping, Hobbs Act robbery, wire fraud, and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of crimes of violence.
He faces a minimum sentence of seven years in prison, with the possibility of a life sentence. St Felix is scheduled to be sentenced on September 11.
Edited by Andrew Hayward