FBI seizes $100,000 in NFTs from fraudsters after ZachXBT investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has seized 86.5 Ether (ETH) and two non-fungible tokens (NFT) worth more than $100,000 from a reported phishing scammer.
The alleged scammer in question, Chase Senecal – known as Horror (HZ) online – was first revealed via a lengthy investigation by independent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT posted back in September 2022.
The FBI’s official notice on Feb. 3 outlined that Seneca’s property — including a royal Audemars Piguet oak watch valued at $41,000 — was “seized for federal forfeiture for violation of federal law.”
The FBI’s notification did not detail much other information about the ordeal except that the entire property was seized on October 24, 2022. The seized NFTs included Bored Ape Yacht Club #9658 and Doodle #3114, valued at $95,495 and $9,361, respectively, at the time of the raid.
86.5 ETH was valued at $116,433 at the time of seizure, but is now worth $144,000.
It is unclear what the full extent of legal proceedings that have taken place against Senecal is at this stage. However, according to the FBI’s Law Enforcement Bulletin, federal forfeiture is a law enforcement tool that allows the government to “remove—without compensation to the individual—ownership of property involved in a crime.”
“It may occur in a civil proceeding, such as a lawsuit against the subject, or after the conviction of a person in a criminal case,” the FBI states.
Although the FBI has not come out with an official tip to ZachXBT, the chain man noted via Twitter on February 3 that the property seizure “came as a result” of his investigation.
“I look forward to hopefully seeing more phishing scammers suffer a similar fate in the future for hurting so many people in this area,” ZachXBT wrote.
With the seizure of a Bored Ape NFT, people in the community have joked that the FBI will change its profile picture to Ape #9658.
Notably, the flashy watch was one of the key identifiers that helped ZachXBT reveal Senecal’s identity and activity in the chain during the investigation.
Related: Logan Paul and CryptoZoo Sue as Investors Take Action
In a Medium post dated September 2, 2022, ZachXBT explained that after seeing HZ bragging about the new watch on social media, he asked “around some mutual friends who sell watches” and eventually managed to get in touch with the person who was selling the specific AP clock of Senecal.
Unfortunately for Senecal, the payment was said to have been made on the blockchain via the use of USD Coin (USDC).
“The address HZ used to pay the watch seller $47.5k was DIRECTLY funded by several addresses used to scam people with hacked Twitter accounts such as @deekaymotion, @Zeneca_33, @ezu_xyz, [and] @JRNYclub,” ZachXBT wrote.
This is not the first time ZachXBT’s research has played a key role in helping public authorities. In October 2022, France’s national cyber unit cited ZachXBT’s work in helping it capture and charge a group of alleged fraudsters suspected of stealing $2.5 million worth of NFTs via phishing scams.
