Violent cyber scum to spend collective 191 years in prison • The Register

One cybercriminal of essentially the most violent sort will spend his finest years behind bars, as will 11 of his thug buddies for a string of cryptocurrency robberies within the US.

Remy Ra St Felix was discovered responsible of main and taking part in a starring function in his gang of law-breakers earlier this 12 months and can now spend the subsequent 47 years in jail. There are 5 years of supervised launch tacked on the tip of that, plus an order to pay greater than $524 million in restitution. He was convicted of 9 counts referring to conspiracy, kidnapping, Hobbs Act theft, wire fraud, and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of crimes of violence.

The 25-year-old Floridian’s exploits date again to 2020 and in that point he and his gang members stole greater than $3.5 million from varied victims throughout totally different states.

Among the many extra chilling crimes in St Felix’s intensive rap sheet was a 2023 home invasion concentrating on an aged married couple in North Carolina. St Felix and a pal deceived the couple into letting them into their home earlier than zip-tying their limbs and holding them at gunpoint over a big sum of cryptocurrency.

The gang had researched the couple previous to the assault and knew that they had strong wallets. The ordeal led to the theft of crypto tokens valued on the time at greater than $150,000.

Courtroom paperwork depicted a harrowing scene by which St Felix and co allegedly threatened to chop off the person’s toes and genitals, shoot him, and rape the girl except he was granted entry to their cryptocurrency wallet.

Saying the sentencing on Friday, the Division of Justice mentioned this was not an remoted incident, and that holding victims at gunpoint was a standard theme of St Felix’s criminality.

An analogous assault was carried out just some months earlier in December 2022 in Little Elm, Texas. This time, a person was focused by St Felix, Jarod Gabriel Seemungal, 23, and 6 Houston-based thugs.

The person and his household have been restrained and held at gunpoint for greater than three hours, throughout which era mentioned man and his mom have been tortured. Identical to with the aged couple in North Carolina, round $150,000 value of cryptocurrency was stolen, as have been two Rolex watches and different invaluable jewellery.

The incident adopted one other in 2022. In Delray Seashore, Florida, a whole household was held at gunpoint whereas a member of the household was kidnapped, crushed, and later discovered 120 miles (193 km) from the house.

Seemungal was mentioned to have devised the house invasion scheme in 2022, with St Felix later taking the reigns after initially solely being recruited as a lowly crew member.

The pair’s criminality started in 2020, nevertheless. They initially began as non-violent SIM-swappers, stealing cryptocurrencies from victims’ crypto alternate accounts with the assistance of pals abroad earlier than they obtained a style for bloodier strategies.

This all got here not lengthy after prosecutors in 2018 dropped expenses in opposition to St Felix reportedly that included tried first-degree homicide, aggravated assault with a firearm, and armed theft.

Simply two months after the assault on the aged couple in North Carolina, St Felix drove to Lengthy Island, New York, from Florida, allegingedly to try one other residence invasion on a household of 5, however was arrested en route. He was touring with two firearms and cable ties.

St Felix, Seemungal, et al all communicated by way of an encrypted messaging app. They might plan assaults collectively, discussing the most effective methods to interrupt into the houses they selected to invade, the targets’ each day actions, and the instruments required for the job.

Seemungal, who alongside St Felix was sentenced to a prolonged 20-year jail stint plus 5 years supervised launch, and ordered to pay greater than $4 million in restitution, additionally used the app to coordinate the acquisition of assets wanted for assaults with international accomplices. These included resort rooms, weapons, and rental vehicles.

Eight of St Felix’s and Seemungal’s cronies pleaded responsible in Might, every incomes themselves varied spells in jail between 12 and 25 years in size, plus various six-figure restitution orders as excessive as $524,153.39. One other pleaded responsible too and is because of be sentenced on October 1.

Two members of the Houston crew have been sentenced to 5 and eight years in jail respectively, and ordered to pay $355,800 in restitution every. ®