The United States has convicted a 24-year-old man of being the leader of an international robbery ring that broke into the homes of its victims and kidnapped and terrorized them with the intent of stealing their cryptocurrency tokens.
The court heard that suspect Remy St. Felix, of West Palm Beach, led the gang between September 2022 and July 2023, during which time he stole hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency from victims through several extremely violent home invasions.
According to evidence presented at trial, on one occasion in April 2023, St. Felix and one other crew member assaulted an elderly couple, restrained them with zip ties and threatened them with further violence at gunpoint while another crew member remotely stole more than $150,000 from their cryptocurrency wallets.
According to the criminal complaint, the brutal attack took place around 9 a.m. local time on Wells Street in Durham, North Carolina. St. Felix and another member of his crew dressed as construction workers, wearing reflective vests and khaki pants, and claimed to be inspecting a pipe for damage.
With the couple’s permission, the assailants circled the perimeter of the home before knocking on the door again and forcing their way inside, passing the wife, who was dragged by the legs into the bathroom, where she was restrained by a masked accomplice from St. Felix, according to the complaint.
The husband rushed to his wife’s aid, but was also held down, tied up and forced by St. Felix to log into her iMac at home and install AnyDesk remote access software, the documents allege.
For the next 45 minutes, St. Felix was on speakerphone with a third crew member tasked with draining $156,853 worth of cryptocurrency from the husband’s Coinbase account in three separate transactions. The perpetrators attempted a fourth transaction, but were blocked by Coinbase.
The St. Felix defendant was convicted by a jury of nine charges, including conspiracy, kidnapping, Hobbs Act robbery, wire fraud and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
According to the original text Complaints [PDF]The husband, who was listening to the call while the traumatic ordeal unfolded, realized that a third crew member, who participated remotely and was described as tech-savvy, had information about the Coinbase account before St. Felix told him, suggesting a previous breach may have occurred, possibly through a compromise of an email account.
This was just one of many home invasions carried out by the gang in North Carolina, New York, Florida and Texas, and even this one incident illustrates the extreme violence of their crimes.
According to the criminal complaint, St. Felix threatened to cut off the husband’s toes and genitals, shoot the husband and rape the wife if she did not allow the intruder access to her Coinbase account.
“St. Felix and his co-conspirators targeted victims of brutal home invasions, kidnappings and robberies across the United States in order to steal cryptocurrency.” Said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, Chief of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division;
“Although members of this violent conspiracy attempted to cover their tracks through encrypted communications and anonymous financial transactions, they were not beyond the reach of our diligent investigators and prosecutors.
“Today’s jury verdict is the latest of more than a dozen convictions in this case and should serve as another reminder that the Criminal Division and its partners are committed to bringing violent criminals to justice, no matter how technically sophisticated the crime.”
Criminals attempted to launder the stolen funds using privacy-enhanced cryptocurrency tokens such as Monero, and platforms that did not implement know-your-customer anti-money laundering checks.
Federal investigators say St. Felix was arrested in July 2023 while en route to carrying out another home invasion, this time in New York.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on September 11th and faces a minimum of seven years in prison and a maximum of life in prison.