Bitcoin at the Scene of the Crime
As per the news, The California man and his mystery girlfriend met online in 2020 and started dating a few months later. However, the woman soon tried to quit the relationship, stating that Berkett was “sexually aggressive.”
The man did everything he could to keep the relationship going. The woman’s relatives became so concerned that they called Berkett and begged him to stop seeing her.
The 25-year-old disregarded the order and subsequently paid a hitman $ 13,000 in Bitcoin to kill the woman.
Fortunately, the crime was exposed quickly thanks to undercover investigators who called Berkett pretending to be the hitman. The Beverly Hills local sent the cops $1,000 more after verifying the victim’s likeness in several photographs and demanding tangible evidence of the homicide.
The 13th of September is the date for his sentencing, and he might spend up to ten years in federal prison.
Anonymous Transactions and the Crypto Web
People who disagree with digital currencies’ legitimacy worry that the asset class will be used to launder money or finance terrorism. Indeed, numerous examples of similar deals have occurred during the previous few years.
The “Crypto King,” Makarand Pardeep Adivirkar, was detained by Indian authorities last summer on charges of using bitcoin to buy illegal drugs from the Dark Web. The prosecution claims that the offender was purchasing drugs from Indian and European vendors.
Sameer Wankhede, the Zonal Director of NCB in Mumbai, said, “It’s cheaper for them to buy these drugs on the dark web and then sell them in India for a higher profit. It’s become a trend for rich kids and influencers who don’t want to [physically] meet a dealer to get drugs.”
Kharodi Village in Malad was the location of a November 2020 drug bust by NCB Mumbai, which resulted in the seizure of 20 LSD blots. The confiscated hallucinogen was bought in Europe with bitcoin.
Because they prevented illness and allowed individuals to travel, COVID-19 vaccinations were in high demand that summer. Therefore, it was difficult for some less-developed nations to vaccinate their entire populations.
Criminals on the dark web capitalized on this shortage by selling counterfeit certifications and medication. Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Monero (XMR) were the most popular digital assets among sellers, with ten shots of the AstraZeneca product costing $250 in cryptocurrency.
The US Department of Justice seized about $ 34 million worth of cryptocurrency in April this year, all linked to illegal Dark Web activity. The money was confiscated from a Florida man who sold over a hundred thousand contraband items through the various marketplaces on Darknet websites.
The potential uses of Bitcoin in such criminal activities is one of the main arguments given by anti-crypto groups. Since it is difficult to trace the crypto transactions and the transaction is decentralized, it becomes a nightmare for authorities to track perpetrators who transact in cryptos. Conversely, the anonymity offered by cryptos is the argument that most pro-crypto groups give who champion the idea of true democracy and feel that authorities should not control cryptos.
