More layers are peeled from the onion of Hushpuppi and Woodberry’s criminal exploits as the FBI reveals that Woodbery (Olaken Jacob Ponle) defrauded two companies in the US and converted the proceeds of his crime to Bitcoin. The FBI may not be able to retrieve the amount stolen by Woodbery as the security of the blockchain system is too sophisticated and unhackable for them to get the funds back.
Woodberry and Hushpuppi were arrested by Dubai police in June and extradited to the US in relation to fraud and money laundering crimes. They face several charges, including a charge of conspiracy.
Hushpuppi, known for his lavish lifestyle on Instagram, has been charged with committing different financial crimes and wire frauds. One of the most notable charges is an attempt to defraud £100 million from an English Premier League team.
Woodberry was behind a fraud scheme worth over $50 million and a loss of $15 million by another company. One of Woodbery’s methods of scamming people and companies of money was to send them emails, claiming to be top officials. In the case of successful scams, Woodbery would have his ‘money mules’ send the funds through their bank accounts to his digital wallet, which held Bitcoin.
In one case, Woodbery talked to an undercover FBI agent without realizing. He asked the agent to assist him in opening a US bank account so that he could transfer millions of dollars to his wallet.
Despite the FBI making new partnerships to enable it to track criminals who use cryptocurrencies, it does not seem to have found a way to hack Bitcoin. Unless Woodbery gives the FBI access to his wallet, they may never be able to access the Bitcoin that he converted from fiat.
So far, Bitcoin is unhackable, proving that it could be the safest technology created in the history of finance. Unlike Ethereum, the Bitcoin network has never been hacked due to the consensus mechanism which prevents bad actors from compromising the system.
