Young Woman Seeking Killer – As an uncensored decentralized currency, bitcoin (BTC) can be used as a payment medium for anything and everything. The (false) belief in the anonymity provided by bitcoin suggests to some that cryptocurrency allows illegal activities to be carried out quietly. Scoop: these people are seriously mistaken and this young lady learned it the hard way.
A $ 5,000 hitman
In the United States, the Eastern District Court of California has just released a criminal complaint against Kristy Lynn Felkins , now 36, for acts committed in 2016 .
The young woman did not seem very happy in her relationship at the time, since she simply tried to hire a hitman on the darknet to liquidate her husband.
It all started on February 26, 2016, when a new account under the pseudonym The News Spy was created on a rather peculiar darkweb black market . Indeed, it offered services, such as “assault” , “kidnapping” or ” murder on command” .
In effect, this site was nothing more than a scam , which took users’ money, but never performed the services offered.
The “aggression gone bad” option
Around March 6-9, 2016, the KBGMKN account sent the scam site a total of 12 bitcoins , which were worth around $ 5,000 at the time. The site administrator had advised him to get them on the peer- to- peer exchange platform, LocalBitcoins , for more discretion .
In addition to the name of the victim, many details that could facilitate her murder were given: hours and place of work, information about the vehicle, usual places she was going.
KBGMKN even specifically asked if it was possible for the assassination to be disguised in such a way as to:
“(…) Make believe that it is about an assault which turned badly (…) perhaps by stealing his wallet? (…) ” .
Obviously, the murder never happened. When federal agents got hold of the scam site’s database in early 2019, the trail of bitcoins sent was found.
Their investigations led them to the LocalBitcoins account with the pseudonym (not very discreet) of “Kristy L. Felkins” , with the email address ( klfelkins @ …) and the phone number of the young woman in question. An arrest warrant against him was thus issued in the wake.
The pseudonymous, and non-anonymous nature of Bitcoin blockchain transactions has therefore made it possible to trace this potential black widow. Despite the bogus hitman site, this story may well end in prison for the accused.
