{"id":943,"date":"2022-08-03T05:51:48","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T05:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptoteambuild.com\/blog\/mississippi-woman-jailed-for-10-years-after-paying-for-murder-in-bitcoin\/"},"modified":"2022-08-03T05:51:48","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T05:51:48","slug":"mississippi-woman-jailed-for-10-years-after-paying-for-murder-in-bitcoin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoteambuild.com\/blog\/mississippi-woman-jailed-for-10-years-after-paying-for-murder-in-bitcoin\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi Woman Jailed for 10 Years After Paying for Murder in Bitcoin"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The US Department of Justice sentenced the 40-year-old resident of Pelahatchie, Mississippi &ndash; Jessica Sledge &ndash; to the statutory maximum of 10 years in Federal Prison. In 2021, the woman hired a &ldquo;hitman&rdquo; and paid him $10,000 worth of bitcoin to murder her husband.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the authorities jailed the citizens of Orange County &ndash; Jeremy McAlpine and Zachary Matar &ndash; for luring over 2,000 investors into a fraudulent crypto scheme. The former will spend 36 months behind bars, while the latter &ndash; 30 months.<\/p>\n<h2> Justice Served<\/h2>\n<p>In September 2021, American law enforcement agents <a data-wpel-link=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/s3.documentcloud.org\/documents\/21098430\/jessica-sledge.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">received <\/a>information that Jessica Sledge had hired a murderer via the Dark Web. A month later, she paid him $10,000 worth of bitcoin so he could kill her husband.<\/p>\n<p>Aware of Sledge&rsquo;s intentions, an undercover police officer contacted her, identifying himself as the &ldquo;hitman&rdquo; she appointed with the task. Following a series of recorded conversations, she confirmed the crypto transaction and its purpose.<\/p>\n<p>In November 2021, Sledge agreed to meet the FBI agent she thought was the assassin, gave him an additional cash payment, and once again proved her murder plot.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the authorities had enough evidence to arrest her. According to a recent <a data-wpel-link=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdms\/pr\/pelahatchie-woman-sentenced-statutory-maximum-10-years-murder-hire-plot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announcement<\/a>, United States District Judge Carlton W. Reeves sentenced her to the statutory maximum of 120 months in jail. She will also have to pay a $1,000 fine, while law enforcement agents will strictly monitor her actions for a term of three years after she gets released.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to the accurate operation of the American authorities, the intended victim remained &ldquo;ultimately unharmed.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2> Jail Time for Crypto Scammers, too<\/h2>\n<p>The US Department of Justice <a data-wpel-link=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-cdca\/pr\/two-orange-county-men-sentenced-federal-prison-conning-investors-out-19-million-through\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sentenced<\/a> two other individuals for crimes related to digital assets. In 2017, Jeremy McAlpine and Zachary Matar (both residents of Orange County, California) established Dropil Inc &ndash; a Belize-based company that provides cryptocurrency investment services. The firm also issued its own tokens &ndash; DROPs.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, the partners conned more than 2,000 investors to purchase the assets, promoting them as an appropriate investment strategy in numerous adverts. The tokens were said to &ldquo;ensure privacy while also offering added value and exclusivity.&rdquo; McAlpine and Matar further assured customers that DROPs could grant them annual returns of between 24% and 63% depending on their &ldquo;risk profile.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, the assets were nowhere near close to a successful investment, and users lost their funds. According to the Department of Justice, McAlpine and Matar drained almost $1.9 million from 2,472 investors through the sale of approximately 629 million DROPs.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors accused them of pocketing the sum for their benefits and causing &ldquo;significant financial harm&rdquo; to victims. As a result of the case, United States District Judge Cormac J. Carney sent McAlpine to spend the next three years in Federal Prison, while Matar will serve a reduced 30-month sentence.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><center><span>SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored)<\/span><\/center><\/p>\n<p><b>Binance Free $100 (Exclusive): <a data-wpel-link=\"internal\" href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/pl\/binancebanner\" rel=\"nofollow\">Use this link<\/a> to register and receive $100 free and 10% off fees on Binance Futures first month<\/b> (<a data-wpel-link=\"internal\" href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/buy-bitcoin-5-easy-steps\/\">terms<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>\n<b>PrimeXBT Special Offer: <a data-wpel-link=\"internal\" href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/pl\/primexbt2\" rel=\"nofollow\">Use this link<\/a> to register &amp; enter POTATO50 code to receive up to $7,000 on your deposits.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/mississippi-woman-jailed-for-10-years-after-paying-for-murder-in-bitcoin\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US Department of Justice sentenced the 40-year-old resident of Pelahatchie, Mississippi &ndash; Jessica Sledge &ndash; to the statutory maximum of 10 years in Federal Prison. In 2021, the woman hired a &ldquo;hitman&rdquo; and paid him $10,000 worth of bitcoin to murder her husband. Additionally, the authorities jailed the citizens of Orange County &ndash; Jeremy McAlpine and Zachary Matar &ndash; for luring over 2,000 investors into a fraudulent crypto scheme. The former will spend 36 months behind bars, while the latter &ndash; 30 months. Justice Served In September 2021, American law enforcement agents received information that Jessica Sledge had hired [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[393,192],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoteambuild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoteambuild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoteambuild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoteambuild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoteambuild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoteambuild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoteambuild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoteambuild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoteambuild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoteambuild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}