Patrick

2024

ZachXBT

US authorities confirmed that an investigation was underway into claims that the son of a federal contractor tasked with safeguarding seized digital assets stole more than $40 million in cryptocurrency.
A spokesperson for the US Marshals Service confirmed to Cointelegraph that “the matter is under investigation,” but declined to comment on details of the case. The investigation concerns social media <a href="https://x.com/zachxbt/status/2014685263327351116" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">claims</a> that John Daghita, son of Command Services &amp; Support (CMDSS) president Dean Daghita, gained unauthorized access to wallets managed under the federal asset protection program.
Crypto sleuth ZachXBT disclosed on Friday that he had traced a wallet linked to Daghita holding about $23 million in crypto connected to as much as $90 million in assets believed to have been seized by the government in 2024 and 2025. ZachXBT later said that he had reported to authorities another wallet holding 12,540 Ether (<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/ethereum-price" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ETH</a>), worth about $36 million at the time, tied to Daghita.&nbsp;
“John [...] sent me 0.6767 ETH ($1.9K) of the stolen government funds from 0xd8bc to my public wallet address,” <a href="https://x.com/zachxbt/status/2015771036458049648" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">said</a> ZachXBT in a Monday X post. “Any stolen funds received will be sent to a USG seizure address.”
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 Source: <a href="https://x.com/zachxbt/status/2014685263327351116" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">ZachXBT</a>
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According to ZachXBT’s investigation, wallets allegedly controlled by Daghita received about $40 million in digital assets from addresses associated with confiscated US government funds. Daghita’s father heads CMDSS, which was awarded a contract by the US Marshals Service in 2024 related to the custody of seized crypto.
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korea-seized-bitcoin-stolen-phishing-scam-report" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">South Korea loses $48 million in seized Bitcoin to phishing scam: Report</a>
Patrick Witt, the director of the White House Crypto Council, <a href="https://x.com/patrickjwitt/status/2015919455650435104" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">said</a> in a Monday X post that he was “on it,” referencing ZachXBT’s claims.
<h2 id="how-much-crypto-does-the-us-government-hold">How much crypto does the US government hold?</h2>
According to data from BitcoinTreasuries.NET, US authorities may <a href="https://bitcointreasuries.net/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">hold</a> as much as 328,372 Bitcoin (<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">BTC</a>) through various seizures such as assets from the hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex. If confirmed, the assets would be worth about $30 billion at the time of publication.
Magazine: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/how-crypto-laws-changed-2025-further-2026/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026</a>

US Marshals confirm probe into $40M theft claims involving seized crypto

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