A Florida man was sentenced to 47 years in prison last week for his part in a series of home invasion robberies targeting cryptocurrency, according to officials.Between September 5 and 12, 12 men were sentenced for their roles in the scheme.
Court documents show that 25-year-old Remy Ra St. Felix of West Palm Beach and his group stole over $3.5 million by using SIM swapping and violent home invasions. They held victims at gunpoint, assaulted them, and tied them up with plastic cable ties.
After a six-day trial in Greensboro, North Carolina, St. Felix was convicted on June 25. Along with his prison sentence, he was given five years of supervised release and ordered to pay $524,153.39 in restitution.
According to court documents and trial evidence, starting in late 2020, Jarod Gabriel Seemungal, 23, from West Palm Beach, and his foreign co-conspirators stole cryptocurrency from victims’ exchange accounts by using SIM swapping to take control of their phone numbers.
In 2022, Seemungal and his team came up with a plan for home invasions and recruited Remy Ra St. Felix and others to help. St. Felix later became the leader of this crew.
In September 2022, St. Felix and his team carried out violent home invasions in Delray Beach and Homestead, Florida. In Delray Beach, the victims were held at gunpoint inside their house.
In Homestead, a man and his family were held at gunpoint, and the man was abducted, held hostage, and beaten before law enforcement found him 120 miles away from his home.
Later in 2022, St. Felix and his crew targeted a man in Little Elm, Texas, making several attempts to rob him.
In December 2022, Seemungal and a Houston-based crew, including Deangelo Lee Contreras, Tristian Rene Gamez, Victor Gonzalez, Jesus Salazar, Cristian Valdez, and Jesus Gerardo Valdez, Jr., all carried out the home invasion.
The Little Elm man and his family were held at gunpoint and restrained in their home for over three hours. During that time, the crew tortured the man and his mother.
They stole approximately $150,000 in cash, two Rolex watches, and a valuable necklace and pendant.
In April 2023, St. Felix and Elmer Ruben Castro, 23, from West Palm Beach, broke into a couple’s home in Durham, North Carolina. Before the invasion, St. Felix’s co-conspirators hacked into the couple’s email account and spent several days watching their home.
During the invasion, the men violently assaulted the couple, threatened them with guns, and tied them up with plastic cable ties. They forced the husband to give access to his computer and cryptocurrency exchange account. Seemungal then remotely accessed the account and stole over $150,000 in cryptocurrency.
The conspirators laundered the stolen funds through anonymous cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance platforms that bypassed identity checks.
In July 2023, St. Felix traveled from Florida to Long Island, New York, intending to carry out a home invasion targeting a family of five. However, before he could execute the plan, he was arrested. At the time of his arrest, St. Felix was found with two firearms and plastic cable ties.
Throughout the conspiracy, the group used an encrypted messaging app to plan their crimes. They discussed targets, how to break into homes, the tools needed, the technical aspects of cryptocurrency, and their victims’ daily routines. They also shared photos of their targets and homes.
In addition to the previously mentioned home invasions, the group used the encrypted app to plan more robberies in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Georgia. Seemungal and foreign co-conspirators funded rental cars, hotel rooms, and firearms for co-conspirators Haisel Daily, 22, and Ruben Matias Nicolopulos Silva, 22, to use in these crimes.
Seemungal received a 20-year prison term, five years of supervised release, and a $4,038,479.39 restitution order last week.
He had pleaded guilty on Dec. 19, 2023, for his role in the scheme to steal cryptocurrency by hacking victims’ accounts and for his involvement in the home invasion and robbery plot.
On February 6, Castro pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 1.
On May 29 and 30, nine of St Felix’s and Seemungal’s co-conspirators pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and were sentenced as follows:
- 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 commit robbery affecting commerce.
On Sept. 5, Salazar received a five-year sentence with a four-year period of supervised release and a $355,800 restitution order.
Gamez received a sentence on Sept. 11 that included eight years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $355,800 restitution requirement.
The FBI’s Charlotte Field Office investigated the case.
The National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) from the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina to prosecute the case.