Dr. James Wan, a Georgia-based physician, has pleaded guilty to orchestrating a murder-for-hire scheme via the dark web. The physician uses Bitcoin as the primary means of payment. His sinister plot involved hiring a hitman to stage his girlfriend’s death into a carjacking gone wrong.
Wan is now awaiting sentencing scheduled for January 2024 in a federal court.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the doctor initiated his dark web venture in April 2022. He meticulously planned his girlfriend’s murder, providing extensive details, including her Facebook account and vehicle description. The contract was to be sealed with multiple Bitcoin payments, approximately $24,200, which included resending a payment due to an incorrect crypto wallet address.
Wan’s operation encountered complications from the outset. Initially, he attempted to secure the murder-for-hire contract by transferring a 50% down payment, to an escrow wallet. This initial transaction, around $8,000, went awry as the funds were mistakenly sent to an incorrect wallet address.
A week later, Wan sent another $8,000 in Bitcoin to ensure sufficient money was in the escrow account for the contract to proceed. He then began inquiring on the marketplace’s forum about the progress and timing of the operation. Despite his impatience, the murder plot was never carried out.
Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, commented in a press release, “Despite his cowardly concealment on the dark web, Wan’s cold-hearted murderous plot was thwarted thanks to the exceptional work of our team. He will now face the full consequences of the criminal justice system.”
But Dr. Wan was not the first
Wan’s case is not the first instance of individuals attempting to use Bitcoin to hire hitmen. In 2021, the FBI charged a 41-year-old Utah man who paid $16,000 in Bitcoin for a double murder. The same year, an Italian man transferred €10,000 ($12,000) in cryptocurrency for an assault on his ex-girlfriend. He specifies that he wanted the hitman to “throw acid in her face, but without blinding her.”
Earlier this year, a Nevada woman received a 5-year sentence for using Bitcoin to hire a hitman to murder her ex-husband. In contrast, another woman in Tennessee was indicted in June for attempting to hire a hitman, who requested payment in Bitcoin, to kill a friend’s wife she met on Match.com.
