Bitcoin
Somerset and Wiltshire duo jailed for £5.7m crypto fraud
Image source, Avon and Somerset Police
Image caption, Police identified victims from 26 different countries targeted by the pair
May 7, 2024
Two men who stole more than £5.7 million worth of cryptocurrency from victims around the world have been jailed.
Jake Lee, 38, from Charlcombe in Bath, and James Heppel, 42, from Staverton in Wiltshire, pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud.
The South West Regional Organized Crime Unit (SWROCU) identified 55 victims in 26 countries, including 11 from the UK, who were targeted by the pair.
Lee was sentenced to four years in prison and Heppel was sentenced to 15 months at Bristol Crown Court on May 3.
The money included £551,000 in a suitcase, which was voluntarily handed over by Lee in January.
The pair carried out the fraud by replicating cryptocurrency exchange Blockchain.com’s website to access victims’ Bitcoin wallets, allowing them to steal their funds and login details.
A print of Banksy’s 2003 work Bomb Love, worth £60,000, along with cash totaling £835,000, £64,000 in cryptocurrency and three cars were all confiscated by police.
A confiscation order worth almost £1 million has been issued against Lee, which will be used to compensate victims.
Proceedings are ongoing regarding a similar order – which requires criminals to hand over money and available assets, or have an additional period added to their prison sentence – for Heppel.
Image caption: A print of this 2003 Banksy work was confiscated by police
Det Supt Matt Brain, from the SWROCU Regional Cyber Crime Unit, said the investigation into the pair began when Avon and Somerset Police arrested Lee on suspicion of money laundering.
Officers recovered £24,000 in cash and three digital devices, including three laminated Bitcoin Wallet Recovery Seeds – a collection of words that helps the owner restore a Bitcoin wallet that has been lost.
At the same time as the investigation into Lee, SWROCU also began an investigation into a cryptocurrency scam reported by a Wiltshire victim who had £11,000 worth of Bitcoin withdrawn from his Blockchain wallet.
Image caption, Money was recovered by police as part of the investigation
Mr Brain added: “We took over the investigation from Lee and when we analyzed his devices, we established that he was a central figure involved in a sophisticated domain spoofing fraud and worked to identify numerous victims.
“Mapping Lee and Heppel’s offenses and links to other suspects and cryptocurrency exchanges around the world was complex work, but the fact that they both pleaded guilty to all charges negated the need for a six-week trial, shows the strength of the evidence we secured against them.”
Pamela Jain, specialist prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service’s International Serious Economic Crime Directorate, said: “This was a complex and lengthy process involving investigations with numerous victims and judicial authorities across the world.”