Iranians Accused of St. Charles Cryptojacking Scam

ST. LOUIS – The Eastern District of Missouri is dealing with a first-of-its-kind cryptojacking case as federal prosecutors charge two Iranians, Danial Jeloudar and Saeeid Safaei, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

According to the Justice Department, both defendants are believed to be living abroad. The duo is accused of using sophisticated tactics to hijack a St. Charles, Missouri-based technology company’s cloud account to generate cryptocurrency through illegal mining operations.

Cryptojacking involves cybercriminals gaining unauthorized access to a victim’s computer systems to use their processing power for cryptocurrency mining without the owner’s consent. In this instance, the suspects are accused of misrepresenting themselves using the victim company’s account to fraudulently authorize at least five new servers on the cloud service.

The fraudulent activities were uncovered when the victim received an exorbitant bill exceeding $760,000 from the cloud service provider for the use of the unauthorized servers. The investigation revealed that the servers were intended to run software designed for mining cryptocurrency.

Special Agent in Charge Richard Quinn of the FBI St. Louis Division emphasized that cryptojacking does not require the victim to own any cryptocurrency. “It’s about criminals hijacking the use of your computer’s processing power to generate and cash out cryptocurrency,” he said.

Authorities advise businesses and individuals to take cybersecurity measures such as two-factor authentication, monitoring login history for suspicious activity, and auditing cloud storage regularly to minimize the risk of falling victim to such schemes. The FBI St. Louis Division is leading the investigation with Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle T. Bateman handling the case.