The FBI has figured out the culprit who paid the killer for the failed murder of his wife in bitcoins. The data, including a photo of the suspect, was provided by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
Tennessee resident Nelson Replogle paid a hitman in BTC to kill his wife Anne. According to FBI Special Agent Clay Anderson, Replogle sent the would-be killer BTC along with a description of his wife’s car and the time she was supposed to take the pet to the vet.
Agent Anderson learned about the scheme outlined in the court record from the Knoxville Sheriff, who told him about it after receiving a tip from the BBC. An FBI agent then alerted Ann Replogle and her husband, who said they had no idea who could harm her.
The FBI agent put pressure on the BBC staff, who provided additional information, including the address of the BTC wallet, which received the payment for the murder. After that, Anderson turned to FBI cybersecurity experts who helped solve the case by analyzing the Bitcoin blockchain.
“The FBI headquarters provided an analysis of the transaction on the blockchain and was able to determine that the address from which the payment was made was an account on the Coinbase exchange,” Anderson said.
The FBI then sent a lawsuit to Coinbase to obtain information about the account holder. The exchange provided an immediate life-threatening response that included not only the account’s transaction history, but also Replogl’s name and photographs that he used when registering and passing the KYC verification.
The FBI also obtained the details of the IP address that Replogl used to connect during the transfers. The FBI then filed a lawsuit against Internet service provider AT&T and the company confirmed that Replogl was connecting to the network from his home. The information provided to Coinbase included the name of the bank that Replogl connected to its account. The bank confirmed that Replogl used his personal savings account when purchasing BTC for the hit man.
However, the FBI has not yet been able to identify the killer. Most likely, the killer did not use a regulated service like Coinbase, which requires identification, but provided the customer with a personal wallet address.
Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies are filing more lawsuits with Coinbase. According to the company’s latest transparency report, the number of such requests has grown by 17% in the past six months alone, to more than 4,000 last year. The IRS also easily obtains the information it needs from regulated cryptocurrency exchanges.
