According to a press release from the Department of Justice on Thursday, a New Jersey man acknowledged to paying $20,000 in bitcoin to have a 14-year-old kid killed.
According to a press release, John Michael Musbach, 31, pled guilty to one count of “knowingly and willfully utilizing and inducing someone to use a facility of interstate and international commerce, that is the internet, with the purpose that a murder be committed.”
Although Musbach now calls Haddonfield, New Jersey home, according to the prosecution, he was living in Atlantic County when he first came into contact with the victim. At the time, the victim resided in New York.
According to the DOJ, in the summer of 2015, Musbach and the victim exchanged sexually explicit pictures and videos. When the victim’s parents learned about the “inappropriate communication,” they alerted the police. When New York law enforcement officials learned that Musbach lived in Atlantic County, they got in touch with the prosecutor’s office there (ACPO). Musbach was detained by ACPO agents in March 2016 on suspicion of child pornography, according to the DOJ.
Prosecutors claim that when Musbach was taken into custody, he “planned to have the victim murdered so the victim could not testify against him in the ongoing criminal prosecution.” The DOJ said that over a two-week period in May 2016, Musbach “repeatedly interacted” with the owner of a dark net website that offered murder services. The DOJ withheld the identity of the website that advertised offering contract murders or other violent crimes in exchange for bitcoin payments.
A murder-for-hire is said to have been planned by Musbach, who reportedly inquired of the putative hit man if “a 14-year-old was too young to target.” The attack reportedly cost Musbach $20,000 in bitcoin, according to the prosecution. The DOJ said that Musbach was pressured into paying an extra $5,000 after requesting further information about the attack and the anticipated time of its occurrence from the website’s administrator.
Prosecutors claim that when Musbach attempted to cancel the hit, the website administrator admitted the “website was a hoax” and threatened to provide law authorities Musbach’s personal information.
If the website administrator alerted police to Musbach’s murder-for-hire scheme, the DOJ did not specify.
According to the DOJ, the crime of using facilities used in interstate commerce to commit murder-for-hire carries a potential punishment of 10 years in prison and a fine of at least $250,000. On June 13, Musbach is due to get his punishment.
»Man from New Jersey is charged with giving hit man $20,000 to kill 14-year-old boy«