Hamilton youth arrested after $46M cryptocurrency theft investigated by FBI, Hamilton Police
Published November 17, 2021 at 11:36 am
A local youth has been arrested by the Hamilton Police Service (HPS) after an investigation into a $46 million cryptocurrency theft that involved the FBI and the United States Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force.
Police are calling it the largest cryptocurrency theft reported by one person.
The joint investigation began in March of 2020 and focused on the theft of cryptocurrency from a victim located in the United States.
The victim had been targeted by a SIM swap attack, a method of hijacking valuable accounts by manipulating cellular network employees to duplicate phone numbers. Threat actors then intercept security information.
As a result of the attack, approximately $46 million (Canadian) worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from the victim.
The HPS says the joint investigation revealed that some of the stolen cryptocurrency was used to purchase an online username that was considered to be rare in the gaming community. This transaction reportedly led investigators to uncover the account holder of the rare username.
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A Hamilton youth was arrested for theft over $5,000 and possession of property or proceeds of property obtained by crime.
The matter is now before the courts.
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