2 Charged After Allegedly Planning To Steal Millions In Bitcoin From NY Home

Federal prosecutors said that two men were arrested after they allegedly came up with a plan to break into a home in Westchester County, New York and steal millions of dollars in bitcoin.

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in a press release that Shon Morgan and Dominic Pineda were charged with conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery. The charge was slapped following their arrest on Thursday. Williams said that the two men participated in a "violent plan to break into a family's home in the middle of the night."

They had allegedly planned to "force its residents to provide the code to what the defendants believed was tens of millions of dollars in Bitcoin currency," he shared. He thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for their work, and said that the "defendants will now be held responsible for the alleged acts.”

According to the indictment unsealed in federal court in White Plains, the two, both 21 years, conspired to break into the home from May 18 to May 24 in 2020. The two men, both Virginia residents, face up to 20 years in prison, reported 4 New York.

Earlier this month, a 31-year-old Chinese-American accused of stealing $3 million in a home invasion in San Francisco in March was deported back to America, reported Focus Taiwan. It happened after he was arrested in Taiwan in late May in a joint cross-border operation, said Taiwan police.

The suspect, whose surname is Zhang, allegedly broke into the house of his victim. Once he got in he allegedly transferred $3 million in various cryptocurrencies from her account. The FBI informed that the suspect had absconded to Taiwan then Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) along with National Immigration Agency, formed a special task force to search for him, said CIB officer Dustin Lee.

After an investigation, it was found that Zhang, who was a technology engineer, had entered Taiwan on March 18. He had a U.S. passport. A California court had issued a wanted notice for him on March 23, said the CIB. In order to investigate whether he came to Taiwan with the intention of hiding the illicit gains from his robbery, the special task force reported the case to the New Taipei District Prosecutors' Office.