Bitcoins Accepted In Murder-For-Hire NetworkOnline Currency Also Linked To Murder-For-Hire Activity Of Silk Road Founder |
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The anonymous virtual currency Bitcoin, which has found some use in the online poker world, has been advertised as a payment method on the so-called “Hitman Network”, The Daily Beast reported Thursday.
The existence of such a network was recently discovered by a web security firm. In order to use it, one would have to use a cloaked router. According to the report, law enforcement officials have been notified, but it appears to still remain in existence. It’s unclear if it has ever actually been used to negotiate a murder-for-hire.
Earlier this month, the FBI arrested the founder of Silk Road, an online marketplace allegedly used to buy and sell illicit products, including drugs. The U.S. claimed that 29-year-old Texan Ross Ulbricht took out a hit on a former user, in addition to committing a slew of other crimes. As Forbers pointed out, Ulbricht also is accused of wanting a former employee killed for fear he would rat on him to the cops. In the latter case, the supposed hitman was an undercover agent.
According to the second criminal complaint, the user was trying to extort $500,000 from Ulbricht, threatening to reveal the identities of thousands of other Silk Road users.
In his private correspondence about the situation with a potential hitman, Ulbricht allegedly said that disposing of the worrisome user “doesn’t have to be clean.”
The hitman eventually communicated to Ulbricht that the price would be $150,000 to $300,000, to which Ulbricht allegedly replied, “Don’t want to be a pain here, but the price seems high. Not long ago, I had a clean hit done for $80k. Are the prices you quoted the best you can do? I would like this done asap as he is talking about releasing the info on Monday.”
The eventually agreed on a price of 1,670 Bitcoins, which is about $150,000.
According to the FBI agent who busted Ulbricht, there doesn’t seem to have been a murder resulting from all of this, however. Authorities in British Columbia, Canada, where the user supposedly lived, said that there wasn’t a homicide on the date in question, and there actually isn’t anyone in Canada who has the same name that Ulbricht allegedly supplied the hitman with.
In other words, right now, Ulbricht is being accused of just trying to solicit two hits.
The marketplace was also shut down and thousands of Bitcoins were seized as part of the bust.
Ulbricht, who was sitting in solitary confinement as of Wednesday, will stand trial in New York.
He could face life in prison.
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