Share this article
Missouri Man Pleads Guilty to Trying to Buy Chemical Weapons With Bitcoin
The chemicals, though never delivered, would have been potent enough to kill 300 people, prosecutors say.
By Danny Nelson
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 9:40 a.m. Published Aug 4, 2020, 11:39 p.m.
A 45-year-old Missouri man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges related to his trying to buy chemical weapons on the dark web using $150 in bitcoin.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
- Jason William Siesser admitted in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri he attempted to pay $52 in bitcoin per vial of an unnamed chemical weapon on two occasions in the summer of 2018.
- Prosecutors said the "highly toxic chemical" was potent enough to "kill approximately 300 persons" at the levels Siesser sought, and that he had told the seller he planned to use them imminently.
- Siesser, whom FBI agents detained within minutes of the package's arrival in late August 2018, also admitted on Tuesday to identity theft. He had had the package sent to a juvenile living at his address "because [Siesser] did not want to get in trouble if the purchase was traced to him," the plea deal stated.
- The package Siesser ultimately received contained an inert substance, not a chemical weapon. Even so, agents found a potentially deadly trio - cadmium arsenide, cadmium metal and hydrochloric acid - at Siesser's Missouri residence.
- Siesser faces a minimum five-year sentence, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.
Read the plea deal below:
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Weekend Sell-Off Hits EdgeX’s Nasdaq-Linked Perp as $13M in Longs Liquidated
A large short placed during off-hours sent EdgeX’s XYZ100 perpetual down nearly 4%, exposing risks in equity-index perps when traditional markets are closed.
What to know:
- A newly created wallet executed a short worth roughly $10 million on EdgeX’s Nasdaq 100–linked perpetual, triggering a rapid 3.5% price drop and a liquidation cascade across long positions.
- With U.S. equity markets closed, traders cannot hedge exposure to the Nasdaq, leaving equity-index perps more susceptible to large orders and thin liquidity.
- EdgeX processed about $167 billion in perp volume last month, underscoring how fast-growing crypto derivatives platforms are pushing into tokenized equities.
Top Stories
