A Palm Coast teen who used aliases like “Sosa,” “Elijah,” “King Bob” and “Anthony Ramirez” in an alleged cryptocurrency scheme faces federal charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and an indictment.
Noah Michael Urban, 19, was arrested Tuesday and charged with eight counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and five counts of aggravated identity theft.
He was part of a scheme that resulted in the theft of at least $800,000 from at least five different victims between August 2022 and March 2023, according to the indictment.
Cryptocurrency scheme for teens in palm coast
The indictment did not identify the victims, only saying they were adults. It also did not identify any co-conspirators.
According to the indictment, Urban made the following transfers to the “Exodus Wallet” on his computer:
- About $294,797 in Ethereum from one victim. Ethereum is the blockchain for ether, a cryptocurrency.
- Bitcoin worth $21,952 from a second victim.
- About $37,742 in Bitcoin from the third victim.
- About $107,230 in Ethereum from the fourth victim.
- About $374,614 in Ethereum from the fifth victim.
More details about the cryptocurrency chart
Orban and other conspirators illegally obtained the victims’ personally identifiable information and used it to fraudulently access their virtual currency addresses.
Using SIM swapping, the conspirators reset victims’ passwords and verified ownership of the victims’ mobile phone numbers through one-time passwords. SIM swapping is a type of fraud where conspirators take over someone’s mobile phone account so that the victim’s incoming messages and texts are sent to a different phone. Once the SIM card is swapped, a person can access the victim’s accounts, including accounts that use two-factor authentication.
Once they had access to the victims’ phones, Urban and other co-conspirators illegally transferred the victims’ cryptocurrency to cryptocurrency wallets controlled by the defendants, according to the indictment.
Parts of the indictment read like a primer on cryptocurrency. Below are some of the terms and meanings used in the documents:
- Virtual currencies are digital tokens of value that are traded online instead of traditional fiat currency.
- Virtual currency addresses were virtual locations where virtual currencies were sent or received. They were represented by strings of letters and numbers.
- Virtual currency transactions are often required to be recorded publicly on a “blockchain” which is essentially a public ledger maintained by a computer network that “contains a historical and immutable record of every transaction…”. Different types of virtual currencies have different blockchains.
- Subscriber Identity Module or SIM card is a technology used to identify subscribers on mobile phones.
- 2FA is used to increase security and ensure that a person is an authorized user.
- A one-time password or OTP is a type of two-factor identification code.
Orban faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each wire fraud count and a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison on the aggravated identity theft charge.
Urban was detained pending a detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday in Jacksonville.