A Florida man convicted in June for his role in a scheme involving a series of home invasion robberies targeting cryptocurrency was sentenced to 47 years in prison on Wednesday, the US Department of Justice said.
The DOJ said on Friday that in all, 12 men have been sentenced this month for their role in the scheme.
One of the home invasions took place in April 2023 at a residence in Durham , where a couple was assaulted, threatened with guns, and restrained with plastic cable ties. The DOJ said Remy Ra St Felix, 25, of West Palm Beach, Florida, and Elmer Ruben Castro, 23, also of West Palm Beach, were involved in that break-in. Before the invasion, they got unauthorized access to the couple’s email account and did surveillance on the home for several days.
They then forced the man to provide access to his computer and cryptocurrency exchange account. The DOJ said another accomplice, Jarod Gabriel Seemungal, 23, of West Palm Beach, then remotely accessed the couple’s computer and stole more than $150,000.00 worth of cryptocurrency. They then laundered the funds through anonymity-enhanced cryptocurrencies, as well as “instant exchanges” and decentralized finance platforms.