Man used Coinbase to pay hitman in Bitcoin for wife's murder, FBI says

Post by DennisP » Tue, May 11, 2021, 7:14 PM UTC

cwkoss wrote: post #9

the_local_host wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect there are few real-world examples where "you could just say X" actually works... but in this case the story is that a random "weed dealer" killed not a random person, but a specific person known to the "weed purchaser"? Who would believe that story?

How does prosecution prove the payment was connected to the hitman and not the weed? Seems like they'd need to seize the hitman's digital communications, at which point the jig is probably already up.

Post by smnrchrds » Tue, May 11, 2021, 7:16 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #15

PeterStuer wrote: post #6

"Man Used Bank of America to Pay Hitman in USD for Wife's Murder, FBI Says An FBI agent explains how a BoA account led the agency to the suspect."

Few people would be dumb enough to commit crimes with a bank account in their own name. Except this guy: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/547280-gaetz-paid-accused...

Post by gumby » Tue, May 11, 2021, 7:20 PM UTC

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #28

Hydraulix9899 wrote: post #2

There's this misconception that bitcoin is private / "safe" for criminals. In reality, the block chain is public (and all of its transactions inside... that is how distributed ledger consensus is achieved among miners) and the on-ramps and off-ramps between fiat are all logged / tracked, especially Coinbase (since they are taking the "safe route" and playing by all of the rules with governments / regulators). Your la…

Sounds like it worked just great for one of the criminals... From TFA "The FBI has not, however, been able to identify the hitman as yet. The reason is almost certainly because the hitman did not use a commercial service like Coinbase, which must comply with know-your-customer laws, for the Bitcoin transactions but instead relied on his own personal wallet—one that did not reveal any information about his identity."

Post by m4x » Tue, May 11, 2021, 7:26 PM UTC

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #28

Hydraulix9899 wrote: post #2

There's this misconception that bitcoin is private / "safe" for criminals. In reality, the block chain is public (and all of its transactions inside... that is how distributed ledger consensus is achieved among miners) and the on-ramps and off-ramps between fiat are all logged / tracked, especially Coinbase (since they are taking the "safe route" and playing by all of the rules with governments / regulators). Your la…

Sounds like it worked just great for one of the criminals... From TFA "The FBI has not, however, been able to identify the hitman as yet. The reason is almost certainly because the hitman did not use a commercial service like Coinbase, which must comply with know-your-customer laws, for the Bitcoin transactions but instead relied on his own personal wallet—one that did not reveal any information about his identity."

Post by jeppesen-io » Tue, May 11, 2021, 7:30 PM UTC

Hydraulix9899 wrote: post #2

There's this misconception that bitcoin is private / "safe" for criminals. In reality, the block chain is public (and all of its transactions inside... that is how distributed ledger consensus is achieved among miners) and the on-ramps and off-ramps between fiat are all logged / tracked, especially Coinbase (since they are taking the "safe route" and playing by all of the rules with governments / regulators). Your la…