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Norwegian Police Arrest Millionaire For Wife's Murder After Two-Year Goose Chase for Kidnappers Demanding $10M Monero Ransom

In October 2018, a Norwegian millionaire named Tom Hagen reported that his wife had been kidnapped and presented a ransom note to police that demanded $10 million worth of the privacy-centric cryptocurrency Monero.

According an article published by Reuters, Hagen was arrested on April 28 on the suspicion of murdering his own wife, Anne-Elisabeth Hagen, although his lawyer has denied the allegations.

Although Hagen has not officially been charged with any crime, Police Legal Counsel Aase Kjustad Eriksson was quoted in the report saying that police now have “reason to suspect Tom Hagen of murder or conspiracy for murder.”

But what about the $10 million Monero ransom?

According to Police Inspector Tommy Broeske, “There was no kidnapping, no real negotiating counterpart or real negotiations.” Inspector Broeske said there appears to be substantial evidence that the investigation has been intentionally misled.

Hagen’s wife, Anne-Elisabeth, was reported missing from their Oslo home in late October last year. While Hagen is considered to be one of the richest people in Norway, with a value of over $150 million, it is unknown how much Bitcoin or other crytptocurrency he may hold.

Hagen’s lawyer Svein Holden denied the allegations and said that, “He (Hagen) strongly maintains that he has nothing to do with this.”

Under Norwegian law, people may be held under suspicion of a crime prior to any formal arrest being made. Hagen will appear in court on April 29.

Woman Arrested for Bitcoin Murder-for-Hire Deal with Dark Web

A Nevada woman has been charged with a murder attempt in which she paid a hitman Bitcoin in exchange for killing off her ex-husband.

The woman was alleged to have been planning the murder since 2016, where she first accessed the dark website through Tor, a browser often employed by dark web users for devious activities involving drugs, dark porn, and more.

According to official documents unsealed this week by the US District Court of California, Kristy Lynn Felkins, a 36-year-old Nevada native, was arrested and raided by federal agents, after having paid $5000 worth in Bitcoin (BTC) to a dark website. Through the dark web, she hired a hitman to kill her ex-husband, who she stated was incredibly abusive to her.

She said, “This man mentally, physically, sexually, and emotionally abused me. I ran, and then he took my children away from me. He now mentally abuses my children and threatens their physical well being. He is quite the snake and master manipulator.”

The agreement was that in exchange for BTC payments, the hitman would kill Felkins’ ex-husband outside of his workplace.

In exchange for the kill-off deed, the dark web demanded Bitcoin payments and instructed Felkins to launder the cryptocurrency amount on a peer-to-peer BTC marketplace, called localbitcoins.com. From 2016 to now, Felkins sent 12 bitcoins. According to legal documents, Felkins asked the dark website whether they could make it look like a “mugging gone wrong.”

Murder plot twist

However, the dark web proved to be a scam website, and federal operators caught wind of the attempted murder during an investigation. Felkins was arrested and indicted for attempted murder.

Her ex-husband was never killed. When Felkins asked for proof of the deed, the website had allegedly told Felkins that they could not find her husband at his work. The dark web sent her a questionable picture of the location in order to appease her doubts that a hitman had actually been sent to the workplace to kill off her ex.

The dark web was allegedly also used for illicit criminal activities, such as buying guns illegally and drug dealing. It has since been shut down by US authorities.

The fact that Bitcoin was used in the cybercrime is perhaps a proof of one of the digital currencies’ many advantages – that cryptocurrency running on an open decentralized blockchain ledger is highly traceable, and may be used to track down illicit operations in ways that fiat may not.

Man Who Pays Hitman in Bitcoin to Kill His Wife Gets Traced Back to Coinbase Account

A Tennessee man allegedly used Bitcoin to pay a hitman he found on a murder-for-hire website to kill his wife.

Nelson Repogle, a Tennessee native, has reportedly tried to arrange for the murder of his wife, paying off the hitman with Bitcoin.

The case was uncovered by FBI Special Agent Clay Anderson, who first got wind of the incident through a sheriff in Knoxville, Tennessee. The sheriff was tipped off by a staff member of the British Broadcasting Corporation. According to Anderson, Replogle sent the hitman Bitcoin, along with a picture of his wife Ann’s car and details on her whereabouts.

Anderson proceeded to warn Ann Replogle and her husband, who claimed that he could not think of anyone who would wish harm on her. After digging a bit deeper, Anderson managed to uncover the details of the Bitcoin wallet address that was linked to the murder-for-hire website. The FBI agent then teamed up with the FBI Cyber Task Force to analyze the Bitcoin blockchain for more clues on the case.

The digital wallet used to pay off the hitman was retraced to a Coinbase wallet. The FBI then moved to issue a subpoena to Coinbase to obtain information about the wallets in question. Coinbase complied, given the “threat to life” situation. The crypto exchange provided the transaction history of the wallets, which was linked to Replogle’s name and photos he had used to open a Coinbase account. The internet address that Replogle used to connect the transfers was also uncovered by the FBI.

With the information provided by the Coinbase account, the FBI was able to trace the internet addressed used by Replogle back to internet provider AT&T. After a subpoena to uncover information on Replogle, the FBI confirmed that the connection had come from Replogle’s house.

Although there has been confirmation by Replogle’s bank that he had used funds from his personal savings account to purchase Bitcoin to pay the hitman, the identity of the latter was not uncovered. The hitman did not use Coinbase to receive the funds but had his own personal wallet, which did not reveal any information about his identity.

This case highlights that while Bitcoin can be used in an anonymous manner, every transaction is traceable on the blockchain it runs on. Blockchain provides more traceability, transparency, and efficiency to transactions, all the while offering a reduced cost to users.