12 men have been jailed for their roles in a series of violent robberies where millions of dollars of Cryptocurrency was stolen.
Court documents show Remy Ra St Felix and his co-conspirators stole $3.5 million through sim swapping and a string of brutal raids on victims’ homes.
Victims were held at gunpoint, assaulted and bound with plastic cable ties. St Felix was convicted in June and sentenced to 47 years in prison. He must pay $524,153.39 in restitution.
One of his co-conspirators, Jarod Gabriel Seemungal, 23, of West Palm Beach, and foreign co-conspirators stole cryptocurrency from victims’ accounts at exchanges. They were able to access the accounts by gaining control of the victims’ phone numbers through SIM swapping.
In 2022, Seemungal and his co-conspirators devised the home invasion scheme and recruited St Felix and others to assist with the crimes.
St Felix later became the leader of the home invasion crew.
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Home raids
St Felix and members of the gang committed violent home invasions in Delray Beach and Homestead, Florida, in September 2022. In Delray Beach, the victims were held at gunpoint in their home.
In Homestead, a man and his family were held at gunpoint in their home. The man was then abducted, held hostage, and beaten. He was eventually found 120 miles from his home by police.
Later in 2022, St Felix and his crew targeted a Little Elm, Texas, man and made several trips to attempt the robbery.
In December 2022, Seemungal and a Houston-based crew comprised of Deangelo Lee Contreras, 21, Tristian Rene Gamez, 21, Victor Gonzalez, 27, Jesus Salazar, 24, Cristian Valdez, 21, and Jesus Gerardo Valdez, Jr., 27, all of Houston, Texas, committed the home invasion.
The man and members of his family were held at gunpoint and restrained in their home for over three hours, during which time they were tortured. They stole approximately $150,000.00 in cash, two Rolex watches, and a valuable necklace and pendant.
In April 2023, St Felix and Elmer Ruben Castro, 23, of West Palm Beach, invaded the home of couple in Durham, North Carolina.
Prior to the invasion, St Felix’s co-conspirators obtained unauthorized access to the couple’s email account and conducted multiple days of surveillance on their home.
During the robbery, the men violently assaulted the couple, threatened them with guns, and restrained them with plastic cable ties.
They forced the man to provide access to his computer and cryptocurrency exchange account.
Seemungal then remotely accessed the computer and stole over $150,000.00 worth of cryptocurrency.
Conspirators then laundered the funds through anonymity-enhanced cryptocurrencies, as well as “instant exchanges” and decentralized finance platforms that did not conduct know-your-customer checks.
Arrest in June 2023
In July 2023, St Felix traveled from Florida to Long Island, New York, to commit a home invasion of a family of five.
However, he was arrested before he could carry out the robbery.
Before he could do so, however, he was arrested. At the time of his arrest, St Felix was in possession of two firearms and plastic cable ties.
Encrypted messaging and meticulous planning
The conspirators communicated via an encrypted messaging application to plan their crimes. They identified targets and discussed how to gain entry to homes. They also discussed the tools required to carry out the crimes, the technical aspects of cryptocurrency, and the patterns of life of their targets.
The gang also circulated pictures of their targets and their targets’ homes.
They also used the encrypted messaging application to plan additional home invasion robberies in other areas of Florida.
Seemungal and the foreign co-conspirators financed the purchase of rental cars, hotel rooms, and firearms by co-conspirators Haisel Daily, 22, of West Palm Beach, and Ruben Matias Nicolopulos Silva, 22, of Lake Worth, Florida, to use during the robberies.
The sentences
Seemugal was jailed for 20 years followed by five years of supervised release.
He has been ordered to pay $4,038,479.39 in restitution. He pleaded guilty on December 19, 2023, for his role in the scheme to steal cryptocurrency by hacking victims’ cryptocurrency accounts as well as the home invasion and robbery scheme.
Castro pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping in February. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 1.
On May 29 and 30, nine of St Felix’s and Seemungal’s co-conspirators pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
They are:
- Jose Alfredo Avila, 27, of West Palm Beach, was sentenced on Sept 11, to 20 years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release and ordered to pay $365,100.00 in restitution.
- Contreras was sentenced on Sept 5, to 15 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release and ordered to pay $355,800.00 in restitution.
- Daily was sentenced on Sept 5, to 25 years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release and ordered to pay $524,153.39 in restitution.
- Gonzalez was sentenced on Sept 6, to 12 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $355,800.00 in restitution.
- Nathan Noel Quintana, 24, of Royal Palm Beach, Florida, was sentenced on Sept 6, to 16 years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release and ordered to pay $365,100.00 in restitution.
- Silva was sentenced on Sept. 5, to 12 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release and ordered to pay $524,153.39 in restitution.
- Cristian Valdez was sentenced on Sept 6, to 12 years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release and ordered to pay $355,800.00 in restitution.
- Jesus Valdez was sentenced on Sept 6, to 12 years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release and ordered to pay $355,800.00 in restitution.
- Jesus Manuel Santiago, III, 23, of West Palm Beach, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 1.
On May 29 and 30, Salazar and Gamez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to interfere with commerce through robbery.
- Salazar was sentenced on Sept 5, to five years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release and ordered to pay $355,800.00 in restitution.
- Gamez was sentenced on Sept 11, to eight years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $355,800.00 in restitution.
