The FBI seized more than $260,000 in assets. Among the assets were two NFTs, which alone are worth more than $100,000.
Forfeiture published by the agency on February 4 document According to the FBI, the assets were seized from Chase Senecal, a resident of Brunswick, Maine. The agency, among others 86,5678 ETH-t ($116,433) and booked two NFTs: Bored Ape Yacht Club #9658 ($95,495) and Doodle #3114 ($9,361).
In addition to the roughly $221,000 in crypto assets seized, the FBI also seized one non-digital asset: an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch valued at $41,000
The watch is not a crypto-asset, but its purchase directly led to the other seizures. ZachXBT, that is “volunteer crypto detective” who was responsible for initiating the investigation, noted in a blog post last September that Senecal — aka Horror (HZ) — likely paid for the watch with cryptocurrency. Buying a luxury watch “funded directly by money stolen from hacked Twitter accounts” – written by in a tweet.
By tracking a series of blockchain transactions, ZachXBT was able to determine that the account used to pay for the watch was linked to various hackers. It seems that the FBI took note of its findings relatively quickly, as it seized the assets in question a few weeks later on October 24, 2022.
Zach posted an update on the case on February 3rd. In his post, he expressed his delight that his line of inquiry led the FBI to seize the devices.
According to previous statements by the security cryptoanalyst, Senecal was involved in a multi-million dollar scheme that compromised more than 600 Discord servers and more than 12 Twitter accounts. On February 3, he highlighted the various accounts affected by the hack, including NFT project JRNY Club and animator DeeKay Kwon’s accounts.
The FBI is also involved in several unrelated crypto cases. It was only in January that they made progress on the North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group, crypto exchange Bitzlato and Mango Market exploiter Avraham Eisenberg.