A woman in Illinois is facing up to 20 years in prison for a Bitcoin murder-for-hire plot she put in place against the wife of the man she had an affair with.
Love can make people do horrible things, especially when that love is directed at someone who is currently married to someone else. Tina Jones, a 31-year-old woman in Illinois, has been arrested by police and is being charged in a murder-for-hire plot in which Bitcoin plays a part.
Twisted Love
Tina Jones worked at the Loyola Medical Center with the married man she had an affair with. Apparently, the man decided to end the affair, jilting Jones. She did not take kindly to this change in her relationship status.
She decided to hire somebody to kill her ex-lover’s wife, so she went online to the Dark Web and came across Cosa Nostra International. As Robert Berlin, DuPage County State Attorney, notes:
She went on this website which apparently bills itself as a murder-for-hire type website, and she paid the money assuming that this was going to happen, and had paid over $10,000 to have this woman killed.
Jones used Bitcoin to pay for the murder attempt, and she wanted her money’s worth. Robert Berlin adds:
This woman not only paid over $10,000, but she left specific instructions on the website as to when the woman’s husband would be at work, so they would know when this woman would be alone. She left instructions not to hurt the husband and also to make it look like it was an accident.
Foiled by TV
Police in DuPage County, Illinois, got a tip about the murder-for-hire plot. The prosecutors say that the tip came from the 48 Hours TV show on CBS, which then led to a full investigation.
Tina Jones turned herself into the police and appeared in court last Wednesday. She was charged with solicitation of murder-for-hire, a felony, and bail was set at $250,000. Jones will appear in court again on May 15th. She faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Sadly, this is not the first time a person used Bitcoin to hire a killer to murder someone. While the state has legalized Illinois Sports Betting, it continues to be cautious about integrating cryptocurrencies fully into its gambling regulations. Ross Ulbricht, the operator of the infamous Silk Road, was charged with crimes ranging from drug trafficking and money laundering to murder-for-hire. Meanwhile, in Illinois, the state has embraced sports betting, but it remains cautious when it comes to fully integrating cryptocurrencies into its gambling ecosystem. Although the latter charge was dropped from the indictment, related evidence still played a factor in sentencing. Last December, an Italian woman was sentenced to six years in a Danish prison for using Bitcoin to hire someone to kill her boyfriend.
Naturally, the media enjoys playing up the cryptocurrency and Dark Web angle, but the reality is that cryptocurrency is used primarily in a legal manner. A study found that less than 1% of all Bitcoin transactions were illicit.
Two other takeaways from this story. First, using cryptocurrency isn’t the wisest decision to hire a murderer in most cases as you do leave a trail on the blockchain. Second, perhaps it’s best not to have an affair at all.
Why do you think the woman tried to hire a killer using Bitcoin? Did she want to punish her ex-lover? Did she want him to come back to her, seeking comfort, after his wife died in an “accident’ that befell her? Let us know in the comments below.
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