A Utah man was not too long ago accused of paying hitmen within the cryptocurrency Bitcoin for the homicide of two individuals amid a custody battle.
The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace within the Northern District of New York introduced the fees in opposition to 41-year-old Christopher Pence, of Cedar Metropolis, Utah, on Friday. In line with a press launch from the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace, Pence “was indicted final week for utilizing the Web to solicit and pay for the murders of two people in Rensselaer County.”
In line with a legal grievance filed in opposition to Pence, the FBI first acquired details about Pence’s alleged actions from a confidential supply on September 2. The legal grievance mentioned that the confidential supply advised the FBI that they’d obtained “communications purportedly retrieved from a Darknet web site accessible by way of The Onion Router (TOR) community depicting a consumer of the web site paying roughly $16,000 value of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin in change for the killing of two people who reside in Hoosick Falls, New York.”
The legal grievance went on to say that Pence’s alleged communication with the hitmen occurred between July 16 and August 9. Pence allegedly offered the web site’s administrator with “names, tackle and images of the meant victims,” in addition to how he needed the alleged murders to occur.
“Particularly, the consumer suggested that the killing must be made to seem like an accident or botched theft, and that, if attainable, care must be taken to not hurt any of the three youngsters recognized to be within the care of the meant victims,” the legal grievance mentioned.
Throughout their investigation, the FBI found that the Bitcoin pockets that was used to add the cryptocurrency onto the DarkWeb web site allegedly belonged to Pence, as his date of delivery and social safety quantity have been related to the account, the legal grievance mentioned. The FBI additionally discovered that the IP tackle used to deposit the Bitcoin allegedly belonged to Pence.
Whereas talking with the meant victims, who weren’t recognized within the legal grievance, the FBI found that images reportedly uploaded by Pence matched their descriptions.
Moreover, the interviews with the meant victims revealed a motive for Pence, the grievance mentioned. In line with the grievance, Pence’s household legally adopted 5 of the meant sufferer’s youngsters “and that there was an escalating dispute between the 2 households,” together with the meant sufferer’s need to regain custody of their youngsters.
“Moreover, Pence and the meant victims didn’t agree on how the youngsters must be raised or the non-public decisions and life-style of the meant victims,” the legal grievance mentioned.
The meant victims have been by no means harmed, based on the legal professional’s workplace.
Pence was arrested in Utah on October 27 and is scheduled to be arraigned in Albany federal court docket “at a later date.” The legal grievance mentioned that in an interview with the FBI following his arrest, Pence admitted that he was the consumer of the DarkWeb web site within the obtained communications, that he accessed the web site to rent hitmen and that he offered the consumer with images of the meant victims.
If convicted, Pence faces a most sentence of 10 years in jail, “a high-quality of as much as $250,000, and a time period of supervised launch of as much as 3 years,” the legal professional’s workplace mentioned.
Pence’s legal professional declined to make any additional feedback.
