Cryptocurrency scam: Wellington-based man arrested in FBI bust has thousands in assets restrained
The man appeared in Auckland District Court accused of stealing US$265 million ($450m) in cryptocurrency.
Assets valued at $670,000 were restrained, including cash, cryptocurrency, and high-value goods.
Police have restrained more than $650,000 in assets, after the arrest of a man allegedly involved in a cryptocurrency scam as part of an FBI investigation.
The Wellington-based man appeared in the Auckland District Court on Friday for his alleged involvement in an organised criminal group that stole cryptocurrency from seven victims valued at US$265 million ($450m).
The Wellington High Court issued restraining orders under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 for assets valued at $670,000 including cash in bank accounts, cash in a lawyer's trust account for a property purchase, cryptocurrency and high value goods.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
3 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Family pay tribute to Bay of Plenty stabbing victim
Police at the scene at Awakeri Hot Springs on Thursday. Photo: Pūkāea A cousin of a woman fatally stabbed in the Bay of Plenty on Thursday says she was a loving mother, daughter, niece, cousin, aunty and friend. Emergency services were called to Awakeri Hot Springs Holiday Park around 4.30pm on Thursday after reports of a serious assault. Despite medical attention, an injured woman died at the scene and a 25-year-old woman was charged with murder. "You were a strong hardworking lady that done everything to provide the best for your babies. You stood staunch for your family would do anything to make sure we were all good. One of the loyalest (sic) family members i ever knew. Rest in eternal love now my cuzin your with your dad, sister and all our loved ones. Forever in our hearts," said the victim's cousin in a statement provided to RNZ. Police remained at the holiday park this morning, and the hot pools part of the facility is closed. Campers remain in the campsite. The executive producer of iwi news provider Pūkāea, Kereama Wright, said local kaumātua led a karakia at the holiday park this morning. He spoke to relations of the Māori landowners who said they were very upset by yesterday's events. "For a long time Awakeri hot pools has been a place for whānau to gather for celebrations, for whānau gatherings, for a little bit of reprieve, so to hear this sort of news happening at such a popular site within the region is sad and speaking to some of the people who are camping there, they are definitely shocked and quite disturbed by what happened," he said. Wright had interviewed campers this morning and said he understood both the victim and the accused had been staying at the campground recently. "We spoke to a couple of the campers who were present when the incident occurred yesterday and they were visibly shaken and still very upset at what they saw and what they experienced," he said. The 25-year-old accused appeared in Whakatane District Court this morning charged with murder and was remanded in custody to reappear in early September.
1News
4 hours ago
- 1News
Michigan autoworker's lost wallet is found in Minnesota car— 11 years later
A retired Michigan autoworker looked at a Facebook message after midnight from a stranger: Did you lose your wallet years ago? 'If so,' a Minnesota man wrote, 'it was in the engine bay of a car.' Richard Guilford couldn't believe what he was reading on his phone — a decade-old mystery was remarkably solved. Guilford's tri-fold leather wallet — stuffed with US$15 (NZ$25), a driver's license, work ID, gift cards worth US$275 (NZ$463) and lottery tickets — had turned up under the hood of a car in a repair shop in Lake Crystal, Minnesota. The old wallet of Richard Guilford. (Source: Associated Press) ADVERTISEMENT A Christmas gift from Guilford's sons was suddenly a family treasure again. 'Big Red,' as he was affectionately known at Ford Motor, was in awe. 'It restores your faith in humanity that people will say, 'Hey, you lost this, I found this, I'm going to get it back to you'," Guilford said Thursday. The wallet was discovered in June by mechanic Chad Volk, sandwiched between the transmission and the air filter box of a 2015 Ford Edge with 243,010 km on it. 'Crazy,' Volk said. The filter box wouldn't snap in place after a repair, he said, 'so I messed around a little bit and then pulled it back out and the wallet was sitting on a little ledge where it needed to snap down. I pulled the wallet out and that's what it was.' Turn back the calendar to 2014, around Christmas. Guilford was working on the same car at a Ford factory in Wayne, Michigan. It was in a long line of new vehicles assembled elsewhere that needed extra electrical work before being shipped to dealers. Guilford realised later that his wallet had fallen out of his shirt pocket. He was certain he had lost it in a car, but figured it was on the floor of a Ford Flex, not an Edge, and certainly not in the engine. ADVERTISEMENT Guilford said he searched 30 to 40 cars, and his co-workers looked at dozens more, 'just opening the doors up, looking under the seats, looking behind it.' 'I can't take too much time to look for this because I gotta work. I'm on the clock," he recalled feeling. "No luck. Life went on.' Richard Guilford in front of items found in his lost wallet. (Source: Associated Press) Guilford, now 56 and living in Petersburg, Michigan, retired from Ford in 2024 after nearly 35 years. He had put the wallet out of his mind long ago, until getting the message in Facebook, where his profile said he had worked at Ford. Volk messaged a photo of the wallet and included the driver's license. 'Big Red' saw a younger version of himself with his red-tinged beard. Richard Guilford holds up a chat message he received from Chad Volk. (Source: Associated Press) 'The amazing part to me was it was so protected,' Guilford said of the wallet as he also traced the car's history. 'Think about this: 11 years, rain, snow. It was in Minnesota, for crying out loud. It was in Arizona when it was bought. Think about how hot a transmission gets in Arizona driving down the road. That's incredible.' ADVERTISEMENT Cabela's, an outdoor retailer, said the US$250 (NZ$422) in gift cards remain valid, but it has offered to give him new cards anyway. Guilford doesn't know the status of a US$25 (NZ$42) card from Outback Steakhouse. The numbers on the lottery tickets faded long ago. Richard Guilford holds up a lottery ticket he purchased 11 years ago. (Source: Associated Press) 'I'm going to put everything back in it and leave it just like it is, and it's gonna sit at the house in the china cabinet and that's for my kids,' said Guilford, a part-time auctioneer. 'They can tell my great-grandkids about it. We're big into stories. I like tellin' stories. That's just who I am.'
RNZ News
9 hours ago
- RNZ News
Jailed Facebook fraudster Monaro Kerr-Wilson has more prison time added to sentence
By Belinda Feek, Open Justice reporter of Monaro Kerr-Wilson, 21, in the Hamilton District Court at an earlier hearing. Photo: Open Justice / Belinda Feek A Facebook fraudster already behind bars for scamming people out of $30,000 worth of property has been given more jail time for another con. In February, Monaro Kerr-Wilson was sentenced to 22 months' imprisonment after he "bought" two vehicles, one for $20,000 and the other for $10,000, from people on Marketplace in October last year. But he didn't really buy the cars. He used a fake screenshot from his bank account to convince the owners the money had gone through and then took the vehicles. This week, he returned to Hamilton District Court, this time by audio-visual link from prison, to be sentenced on another charge of obtaining by deception relating to a third vehicle. In his latest scheme, the 21-year-old was operating with a co-offender. The pair contacted the victim last year, who was selling his red 2005 Holden Commodore on Facebook Marketplace for $12,000. They met at a service station in Hampton Downs and Kerr-Wilson agreed to pay the $12,000 through an online bank transfer. The victim invited Kerr-Wilson to test drive the car, to which he said, "no", while the co-offender gave a name that she used in "multiple other Facebook scams". The co-offender completed "what appeared to be" a genuine online payment in front of the victim, and then sent him a screenshot of it. After the victim thought he'd been paid, he handed over the keys and left. However, the victim did not received the $12,000. Police found Kerr-Wilson driving the victim's stolen Holden a few hours later. When questioned by officers, he said he had "no idea" about the theft allegation. However, at the latest sentencing, Kerr-Wilson's counsel, Rhiannon Scott, told Judge Noel Cocurullo the latest offence was "effectively a wash-up charge" as it happened about the same time as his previous offending. The difference was that he wasn't charged with the third offence until this year. That meant Judge Cocurullo couldn't sentence him afresh, leaving him to determine what sentence Kerr-Wilson would have been given in February if sentenced on all three charges. Scott suggested an additional prison sentence of two to four months, which prompted the judge to note that if Kerr-Wilson had been jailed on all charges earlier, he would likely already be out of prison. If a person is jailed for two years or less, they are eligible for release after serving half of their sentence. However, if they are sentenced to more than that much jail time, they are eligible for parole after serving one-third of the sentence. "It's actually counted against him because if it was there at the time of sentencing he might have tipped outside the 24 months, with eligibility at one-third ... he probably would have got something like two years and two months, maybe a bit longer, which means after about nine months he could have been paroled," the judge noted. Kerr-Wilson was jailed for an additional four months and ordered to pay the latest victim $500, which would go towards his insurance claim. This spate of offending is not the first for Kerr-Wilson. In 2022, when he was aged 18, he was sentenced on 15 charges for similar offending. This story was first published by the New Zealand Herald .
