A woman has been charged after it was alleged that she paid a dark web company in bitcoin to have her lover’s wife killed.
Tina Jones, 31, of Des Plaines, Illinois, is reported to have had an affair with a married man and paid $10,000 in bitcoin to a dark web company in January to kill his wife, reports the Daily Herald. After turning herself into Woodridge police Tuesday evening she was charged with solicitation of murder for hire. She is being held at DuPage County jail on a $250,000 bail.
The suspect is a registered nurse at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood; the husband’s wife is a clinical social worker based in Naperville; and the victim’s husband is a practicing anesthesiologist who completed his residency at Loyola and is still based in Maywood.
It’s reported that Woodridge police initially began investigating the situation after they received a tip that a woman in the town was the subject of a murder-for-hire plot. According to the Daily Herald, the tip was called in during the CBS News program ’48 Hours.’
DuPage State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement that:
The charge brought against (Tina) Jones this morning is extremely serious. Any attempt, or perceived attempt, to bring physical harm to another individual will be met by the full force and effect of the law.
Jones will stand in front of a judge on the 15th May. If found guilty she faces a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.
With the cryptocurrency market steadily gaining mainstream interest, criminals are looking to the sector as a means of achieving their illegal dealings. What many of them don’t realise, however, is that bitcoin is not anonymous. Not only that, but others believe that the coins will mean instant wealth if they take them from others.
Last week, it was reported that 10 police officers were charged after they allegedly abducted three individuals in February, forcing one of them to transfer 200 bitcoins. At the time, it put the figure at $1.3 million. Earlier this month, Amit Bharadwaj from GBMiners, and his brother, were arrested for allegedly duping thousands of investors out of $300 million through bitcoin-based Ponzi schemes. Before being found out, it was reported that the two had cheated 8,000 investors out of $300 million.
Whether it’s stealing cryptocurrency from others or using it as an attempted way to evade authorities, digital currencies are becoming an attractive option for many criminals.
Image from Shutterstock.
