FBI seized Tokens from Chase Senecal-known as Horror HZ
2023.02.04 03:23
FBI seized Tokens from Chase Senecal-known as Horror HZ
By Tiffany Smith
Budrigannews.com – Two non-fungible tokens (NFTs) worth more than $100,000 and 86.5 Ether (ETH) from a phishing con artist have been seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
In September, independent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT published a lengthy investigation that first brought to light the alleged conman in question, Chase Senecal, also known online as Horror (HZ).
Seneca’s property, which also included a $41,000 Audemars Piguet (AP) Royal Oak Watch, was described as having been “seized for federal forfeiture for violation of federal law” in the official notification that the FBI issued on February 3.
Other than noting that all of the property had been seized on Oct. 24, the notification from the FBI did not provide much additional information about the incident. At the time of the seizure, the particular NFTs, which include Bored Ape Yacht Club#9658 and Doodle #3114, were valued at $9,361 and $95,495, respectively.
At the time of seizure, the 86.5 ETH was worth $116,433, but its current value is $144,000 as of this writing.
At this point, the full scope of the legal proceedings initiated against Senecal is unknown. Federal forfeiture, on the other hand, is a law enforcement tool that enables the government to “remove—without compensation for the individual—ownership of property involved in a crime,” as stated in the FBI’s law enforcement bulletin.
According to the FBI, “it may occur in a civil procedure, like a lawsuit against the item, or after the conviction of a person in a criminal trial.”
On February 3, the on-chain sleuth made the observation via Twitter that the property seizure did indeed “come as a result” of his investigation, despite the fact that the FBI has not officially acknowledged ZachXBT.
2/ HZ was the one who used a Twitter panel to take control of accounts like @Zeneca, @nounsdao, @ezu_xyz, @deekaymotion, @JRNYclub, and attacked @AnataNFT, @Lacoste, and Discord servers.
ZachXBT wrote, “I look forward to hopefully seeing more phishing scammers suffer a similar fate in the future for causing such a great deal of harm to so many people in this space.”
People in the community have made a joke about the FBI changing its profile picture to Ape #9658 after a Bored Ape NFT was seized.
One of the most important identifiers that ZachXBT used to uncover Senecal’s identity and on-chain activity during the investigation was the flashy AP watch.
After seeing Horroz (HZ) brag about the new watch on social media, ZachXBT explained in a medium post from September 2 that he asked “around a few mutual friends who sell watches” and eventually managed to get in touch with the person who sold that particular AP watch to Senecal.
Sadly for Senecal, USD Coin (USDC) was said to have been used to make the payment on the blockchain.
ZachXBT wrote:
“The address HZ used to pay the watch seller $47.5k was DIRECTLY funded by multiple addresses used to scam people with hacked Twitter accounts such as @deekaymotion, @Zeneca_33, @ezu_xyz, [and] @JRNYclub.” This address was used to pay the watch seller $47.5k.
This isn’t the first time that ZachXBT’s research has been crucial in assisting government officials. In October, the national cyber unit of France cited ZachXBT’s assistance in catching and charging a group of alleged fraudsters on suspicion of stealing NFTs worth $2.5 million through phishing scams.
