The U.S. Justice Department (DoJ) has announced charges against two men it alleges were planning a violent home invasion in pursuit of BTC. The two face 20 years behind bars for conspiracy to commit the robbery.
In a press release, the DoJ announced that it had unsealed an indictment charging Dominic Pineda and Shon Morgan with conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery in May 2020 in Irvington, New York. The two participated in a plan to break into the home and rob its residents of cash and digital currencies, believing that they held tens of millions of dollars in BTC.
Morgan and Pineda were arrested last week in Virginia by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and will be presented in the Eastern District of Virginia. Both 21 years of age, the two face a maximum of twenty years behind bars for conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery.
The Hobbs Act is a U.S. federal law prohibiting robbery or extortion by use of force or fear or the attempt of these crimes.
“As alleged in the indictment, the defendants participated in a violent plan to break into a family’s home in the middle of the night and force its residents to provide the code to what the defendants believed was tens of millions of dollars in Bitcoin currency. Thanks to the work of the FBI, the defendants will now be held responsible for the alleged acts,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.
The incident isn’t isolated. All across the world, digital asset investors have become targets of violent muggings, robberies, and even kidnappings for their virtual asset stash.
Last year, a student at Canterbury Christ Church University in the United Kingdom was held at knifepoint by eight thugs and forced to transfer digital currencies worth over $83,000. In November, the founder of Spanish social media platform Tuenti was reportedly attacked in his Madrid home, tied, bound, gagged, and tortured until he surrendered his digital asset passwords.
In one of the most chilling incidents, a Dutch man was reportedly tortured with an electric drill in front of his four-year-old daughter for his digital asset passwords.
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