Federal prosecutors said that a Wisconsin woman has been charged after she paid a dark web hitman $5,000 in bitcoin to kill a man.
The woman, Kelly Harper, 37, of Columbus was charged on Monday February 8 2020. As reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, she was charged with using the internet to hire someone to commit murder.
According to a criminal complaint, Harper browsed murder for hire sites on the dark web and tried to find hit-men and arrange the murder of a Sun Prairie man.
She gave the administrator of a dark web a photo of the man and a picture of his car in 2020.
The administrator then asked for proof of payment to which Harper responded by sharing a screenshot of a bitcoin wallet worth about $5,633, authorities said.
Police received a call on Jan. 12 about a suspicious person at the victims home.
When they arrived, they found that the man was in the middle of an interview with three journalists, who were researching the dark web and uncovered a plot to kill him.
The next day, the victims girlfriend filed a report with the FBI.
Then FBI agents searched Harper’s home, where they discovered screenshots of a murder for hire dark web site on her computer along with an image that she sent to the site dark web hitman.
Harper admitted to federal agents that she had paid a dark web hitman in bitcoin to have the man killed.
According to police, she was taken into custody in Dane County Jail.
Harper could face as much as 10 years in prison, if she is convicted of the charge.
Source: Elmoudjaweb