Canadian Youth Arrested Over USD 36.4M Crypto Theft

A Hamilton youngster has been arrested for alleged involvement in the theft of over USD 36.5m worth of digital assets – the biggest theft reported by one person.

Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. The arrest came as a result of a joint investigation between Hamilton Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the United States Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force, which started in March 2020, Hamilton Police said in a news release.

The suspect duplicated the victim’s phone numbers by a SIM swap attack, gaining access to two-factor authorization requests. Subsequently, the perpetrator stole around CAD 46m (USD 36.5m) worth of cryptocurrencies.

“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 led investigators to uncover the account holder of the rare username,” Hamilton police said. 

They added that the alleged criminal was arrested for theft over USD 5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime. Additionally, they made “multiple cryptocurrency seizures valued today in excess” of CAD 7m (USD 5.6m), the police said, noting that the matter is before the courts.

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