How was FBI able to locate which Bitcoin wallet is Woodberry's?

[Josefjix]

I've read he transferred money gotten from his victims to Bitcoins and who disclosed his Bitcoin address to FBI? Is it possible for FBI to just locate one's Bitcoin address?

Preliminary blockchain analysis done by the FBI indicated that the 29-year-old received at least 1,494.71506296 bitcoin related to these BEC schemes, valued at over $6 million dollars at the time he received the proceeds.

“Mark instructed Individual B and Individual A to send money to the bitcoin wallet 16AtGJbaxL2kmzx4mW5ocpT2ysTWxmacWn (“the 16AtGJ BTC Wallet”) on at least nine occasions.

“Records obtained from Bitpay, a processor of cryptocurrency transactions, indicated that between approximately September 18, 2015 and November 29, 2016, the 16AtGJ BTC wallet made five purchases associated with the Gmail account hustleandbustle@gmail[.]com (the “hustle Gmail account”).

Source: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/402004-how-we-tracked-woodberry-via-iphone-whatsapp-bitcoin-transactions-fbi.html

[mk4]

If I understood this correctly, the statement you quoted already answered the question:

“Records obtained from Bitpay, a processor of cryptocurrency transactions, indicated that between approximately September 18, 2015 and November 29, 2016, the 16AtGJ BTC wallet made five purchases associated with the Gmail account hustleandbustle@gmail[.]com (the “hustle Gmail account”).

“Based on records obtained from Apple, an iCloud account (Subject Account 1) was subscribed to by Jacob Olalekan, listing the 7890 phone number, the hustle Gmail account, and a physical address in Johannesburg, South Africa.”

He pretty much made a purchase through BitPay using the funds that he collected through his scams, and since it looks like he used his personal email(hustleandbustle@gmail[.]com), it was tied to his Apple iCloud account. For a smart guy to pull-off these scams, it looks like he ended up making an amateur mistake in the end.

[CryptoLordguru]

As part of the scheme, he reportedly directed ‘money mules’ in the United States to open bank accounts in the names of victimised companies.
Mr Ponle then instructed the mules to convert the proceeds to bitcoin (virtual currency) and to send the proceeds of the BEC schemes to a bitcoin wallet that he owned and operated.
“Mark instructed Individual B and Individual A to send money to the bitcoin wallet 16AtGJbaxL2kmzx4mW5ocpT2ysTWxmacWn (“the 16AtGJ BTC Wallet”) on at least nine occasions.

Those above statements are taken from the link that you provided above. It clearly says that FBI were able to catch the mules (individuals A, B etc) and they all sent BTC to the same address as asked by Mark. Mark was the fake name used by the mastermind. I believe you got your answer what you are looking for. Everything is so clearly mentioned in the news but if i am missing something or have been unable to understand what you are looking for, please ask again and I will try to help.

Indeed it is not easy to track someone unless things are connected to each-other. He was smart but not that smart enough. If Mr. Ponle would have been a member here, he would have learnt more about it and probably, he would have avoided all these chaos

[Josefjix]

As part of the scheme, he reportedly directed ‘money mules’ in the United States to open bank accounts in the names of victimised companies.
Mr Ponle then instructed the mules to convert the proceeds to bitcoin (virtual currency) and to send the proceeds of the BEC schemes to a bitcoin wallet that he owned and operated.
“Mark instructed Individual B and Individual A to send money to the bitcoin wallet 16AtGJbaxL2kmzx4mW5ocpT2ysTWxmacWn (“the 16AtGJ BTC Wallet”) on at least nine occasions.

Those above statements are taken from the link that you provided above. It clearly says that FBI were able to catch the mules (individuals A, B etc) and they all sent BTC to the same address as asked by Mark. Mark was the fake name used by the mastermind. I believe you got your answer what you are looking for. Everything is so clearly mentioned in the news but if i am missing something or have been unable to understand what you are looking for, please ask again and I will try to help.

Indeed it is not easy to track someone unless things are connected to each-other. He was smart but not that smart enough. If Mr. Ponle would have been a member here, he would have learnt more about it and probably, he would have avoided all these chaos

Even if he was a member of this forum as crime is the paramount offence in this whole scenario; greed would still expose him to the law as there was a member of this forum that tried to scam a casino company and he was busted. Your answer has provided me answer with whatever curiousity I've been having as he was able to be traced and arrested against my initial thoughts of Bitcoin being completely anonymous.

[kryptqnick]

As part of the scheme, he reportedly directed ‘money mules’ in the United States to open bank accounts in the names of victimised companies.
Mr Ponle then instructed the mules to convert the proceeds to bitcoin (virtual currency) and to send the proceeds of the BEC schemes to a bitcoin wallet that he owned and operated.
“Mark instructed Individual B and Individual A to send money to the bitcoin wallet 16AtGJbaxL2kmzx4mW5ocpT2ysTWxmacWn (“the 16AtGJ BTC Wallet”) on at least nine occasions.

Those above statements are taken from the link that you provided above. It clearly says that FBI were able to catch the mules (individuals A, B etc) and they all sent BTC to the same address as asked by Mark. Mark was the fake name used by the mastermind. I believe you got your answer what you are looking for. Everything is so clearly mentioned in the news but if i am missing something or have been unable to understand what you are looking for, please ask again and I will try to help.

Indeed it is not easy to track someone unless things are connected to each-other. He was smart but not that smart enough. If Mr. Ponle would have been a member here, he would have learnt more about it and probably, he would have avoided all these chaos

Even if he was a member of this forum as crime is the paramount offence in this whole scenario; greed would still expose him to the law as there was a member of this forum that tried to scam a casino company and he was busted. Your answer has provided me answer with whatever curiousity I've been having as he was able to be traced and arrested against my initial thoughts of Bitcoin being completely anonymous.

No, I don't think it's about Bitcoin not being as secure as previously thought. I don't remember the specifics, but I have a feeling that I've seen FBI making arrests and statements that could hint that the FBI broke Bitcoin or something and managed to get identities of people who were using it. In reality, I am pretty sure someone just made a stupid mistake rather than the FBI actually hacked something unhackable. For instance, if I remember correctly, Ross Ulbricht was indentified and arrested because he was the first person to mention Silk Road outside of Dark Web on a forum where he used his personal email that was something like rossulbricht@gmail.com. And in the case you're talking about it was again the personal email that led to identification (just as mk4 pointed out, by the way).

[thesmallgod]

If I understood this correctly, the statement you quoted already answered the question:

“Records obtained from Bitpay, a processor of cryptocurrency transactions, indicated that between approximately September 18, 2015 and November 29, 2016, the 16AtGJ BTC wallet made five purchases associated with the Gmail account hustleandbustle@gmail[.]com (the “hustle Gmail account”).

“Based on records obtained from Apple, an iCloud account (Subject Account 1) was subscribed to by Jacob Olalekan, listing the 7890 phone number, the hustle Gmail account, and a physical address in Johannesburg, South Africa.”

He pretty much made a purchase through BitPay using the funds that he collected through his scams, and since it looks like he used his personal email(hustleandbustle@gmail[.]com), it was tied to his Apple iCloud account. For a smart guy to pull-off these scams, it looks like he ended up making an amateur mistake in the end.

That is technology for you. No matter how smart you are, some technology might make you look dump and since him and hushpuppi engage in BEC scheme, it is possible they might be using VPN to by anonymous and finally the guy in question transfer huge amount of bitcoin into a centralized exchange which further makes it easy for the police to track without even a need to use force to gather information from him

[davis196]

If I understood this correctly, the statement you quoted already answered the question:

“Records obtained from Bitpay, a processor of cryptocurrency transactions, indicated that between approximately September 18, 2015 and November 29, 2016, the 16AtGJ BTC wallet made five purchases associated with the Gmail account hustleandbustle@gmail[.]com (the “hustle Gmail account”).

“Based on records obtained from Apple, an iCloud account (Subject Account 1) was subscribed to by Jacob Olalekan, listing the 7890 phone number, the hustle Gmail account, and a physical address in Johannesburg, South Africa.”

He pretty much made a purchase through BitPay using the funds that he collected through his scams, and since it looks like he used his personal email(hustleandbustle@gmail[.]com), it was tied to his Apple iCloud account. For a smart guy to pull-off these scams, it looks like he ended up making an amateur mistake in the end.

Not using a Bitcoin tumbler+purchasing via Bitpay and using a gmail account is a big mistake.Hackers don't use Gmail,unless it's some throw away account with fake information.Usually those scammers can be very manipulative and sneaky,but they aren't that smart.That guy mage 6 million dollars out of scamming,so he got overconfident and forgot about some security measures.This is what happens when you use Google and Apple-The police can easily find your personal info.

[Kakmakr]

You do not need to be a brain surgeon to be able to answer that... He used centralized companies that stores personal details about every transaction made and all communications that are done on those platforms. The FBI has access to Gmail and BitPay and companies like Chainalysis gives them the whole picture of where all transactions has gone, because they have the Bitcoin addresses.

People might think Bitcoin is anonymous, but that is where they are making a big mistake. The transactions is stored on a Blockchain and the broken puzzle can be put together, if you have the right tools and the correct data set. 

[sheenshane]

I've read he transferred money gotten from his victims to Bitcoins and who disclosed his Bitcoin address to FBI? Is it possible for FBI to just locate one's Bitcoin address?

No, not just because of Bitcoin transaction or even the address. Based on the article the scammer caught by the Gmail account and not possible this kind of fraud was mostly can be tracked. Wire fraud is an old trick scam, but still, there are naive people who fall into the trap of scammers. In order to penetrate this kind of fraud activity, the fraudster must know the mobile number and Gmail account.

Now, the fraudster didn't know that he still might be tracked using the Bitpay exchange (centralize) to get the Bitcoin as a payment. You can't really hide your privacy using Bitcoin, unless if you do the hard process not to be linked to your personal identity.

Poor scammer, if he found guilty he might penalize 10-30 years in prison.

[Fundamentals Of]

Is it possible for FBI to just locate one's Bitcoin address?

No. If the FBI has nothing else but a single Bitcoin address then it is impossible to locate the owner of the said address.

But if the address could be linked to different addresses and then used in transactions with third parties then it must be quite easy for them to locate the address and even get the identity of the owner.

[mk4]

That is technology for you. No matter how smart you are, some technology might make you look dump and since him and hushpuppi engage in BEC scheme,

Though thankfully he failed and got caught, he could've probably easily got away with this though. He could've used existing technologies such as CoinJoin(through Wasabi) and mixers(through ChipMixer), and made self-transactions to add extra hops(à la Samourai Wallet's Ricochet feature), and the funds would've been a lot more untracable. He definitely lacked knowledge in privacy in general, not knowing that the authorities can tie-up multiple account data.

Or he neglect research and trust someone who says Bitcoin is fully anonymous

LOL. Also possible, but damn what a very amateur mistake for someone capable of pulling off such a heist.

[jerrison]

I've read he transferred money gotten from his victims to Bitcoins and who disclosed his Bitcoin address to FBI? Is it possible for FBI to just locate one's Bitcoin address?

Preliminary blockchain analysis done by the FBI indicated that the 29-year-old received at least 1,494.71506296 bitcoin related to these BEC schemes, valued at over $6 million dollars at the time he received the proceeds.

“Mark instructed Individual B and Individual A to send money to the bitcoin wallet 16AtGJbaxL2kmzx4mW5ocpT2ysTWxmacWn (“the 16AtGJ BTC Wallet”) on at least nine occasions.

“Records obtained from Bitpay, a processor of cryptocurrency transactions, indicated that between approximately September 18, 2015 and November 29, 2016, the 16AtGJ BTC wallet made five purchases associated with the Gmail account hustleandbustle@gmail[.]com (the “hustle Gmail account”).

Source: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/402004-how-we-tracked-woodberry-via-iphone-whatsapp-bitcoin-transactions-fbi.html

where has th whole il-gotten wealth landed him. no where other than dungeon and locked down in a maximum prison sentence and limited behind the walls. Bitcoin is just a means of exchanging value. it has loads of uses as a currency often does. it should not be tied to crimes as it is also used for a whole lot of good things out there. i just have empathy for the victims of these fraudstars.