The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has confiscated over $260,000 value of NFTs and cryptocurrency after a tip-off by pseudonymous blockchain sleuth ZachXBT.
In response to a forfeiture doc published by the company on February 4, the FBI has seized a number of property from Chase Senecal, a resident of Brunswick, Maine, together with 86.5678 ETH ($116,433) and two NFTs: Bored Ape Yacht Membership #9658 ($95,495) and Doodle #3114 ($9,361). The company additionally seized an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Watch valued at $41,000.
ZachXBT, a self-described crypto sleuth, made the seizure attainable after conducting a radical investigation of Chase Senecal, also referred to as HZ on-line. “After months and months of monitoring their group it’s good to know one of many principal perpetrators (Chase Senecal) for NFT/crypto phishing assaults has been recognized,” they said in a September 1 tweet.
The crypto sleuth traced transactions regarding quite a few NFT hacks and revealed that the account used to pay for the watch was linked to the hacks. The FBI seemingly took be aware of his findings and seized the objects weeks in a while October 24, 2022.
In response to a abstract of the investigation, Cam (SIM swapper) offered Twitter panel entry to Senecal in June final 12 months, who used it to realize entry to Twitter accounts and rip-off NFT holders. Senecal then used the stolen funds to buy the AP watch which led him to get caught. The handle HZ paid for the watch is tied to many Discord server assaults.
The FBI’s discover supplied little extra details about the incident apart from the truth that all the estates had been captured on October 24. Furthermore, it’s unsure what the true extent of judicial instances towards Senecal is.
Notably, the FBI has not formally credited ZachXBT for his investigation of the hacks, however the crypto sleuth mentioned in a current Twitter thread that his investigation led to the asset arrest. He mentioned:
“I’m very blissful to share the FBI seized crypto, BAYC 9658, AP watch, and Doodle 3114 from the phishing scammer often known as Horror (HZ) aka Chase Senecal on account of my thread.”
ZachXBT had beforehand claimed that Senecal was a part of a multi-million greenback crypto scheme that has compromised greater than 600 Discord servers and greater than 12 Twitter accounts. A few of the accounts affected by Senecal’s hacks belong to the NFT undertaking JRNY Membership and the animator DeeKay Kwon.
As reported, the FBI was additionally concerned within the arrest of Anatoly Legkodymov, the Russian founding father of Hong Kong-registered crypto trade Bitzlato, who has been charged with processing $700 million in illicit funds.
