Crewson Brian (Brian Krewson)

Crewson Brian (Brian Krewson)

Biography

2023: Facilitating Dragdilers in Cryptocurrency Storage and Laundering

On November 2, 2023, the US Department of Justice released the results of an investigation according to which Oracle senior technical support engineer Brian Krewson assisted in the storage and laundering of cryptocurrency worth $54 million. According to the case file, the man acted in the interests of two drug dealers.

The Ministry of Justice documents say that Crewson, who worked at Oracle from 2015 to 2023, was engaged in laundering cryptocurrency assets for two friends, Luke Atwell and Christopher Castelluzzo, who were convicted of cocaine trafficking in 2018. The bulk of the evidence that Crewson controlled the criminals' funds comes from their phone conversations. So, in one of the conversations, Castelluzzo and Crewson discussed the transfer of Ethereum to Malta or the Bahamas, although they did not decide on the place. And during a mid-2021 call between Crewson and Atwell, the former raised concerns about law enforcement uncovering any illegal shenanigans.

Before they were prosecuted and sentenced to 21 and 19 years in prison, respectively, Atwell and Castelluzzo conducted a profitable drug business, selling cocaine in the amount of $2.5 to $3 million per month. The investigation established that Atwell tried to hide 30 thousand. Ethereum, which he purchased on the dark web with funds from the sale of drugs. At the time of buying the cryptocurrency, it cost $9,000, while as of November 2023 its value exceeds $54 million.

According to investigators, friends promised Crewson a share for hiding the specified cryptocurrency asset. After the police raided Crewson's house in July 2022, he handed over passwords from crypto wallets to law enforcement agencies. The funds were transferred to the purse of the Ministry of Justice. At the beginning of November 2023, no charges were brought against Crewson.^[1]

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