Good morning. Once upon a time, there was a young man from Hamilton. He was a lonely teen with a troubled past – and the sophistication and skills to steal $48-million in cryptocurrency. Now he’s back at it with an international case of deception, digital thievery and betrayal. Buckle up for the heist story of the new age, which will be in focus today, along with a story of big-ticket co-operation.
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In the news
Talks: Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe plans trade mission to China on canola – and he wants Prime Minister Mark Carney to join him
Trade: Canadian manufacturers are scrambling to manage a sudden expansion in the number of products hit by hefty U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum
Retail: David Thomson seeks to buy the Hudson’s Bay charter for donation to the Archives of Manitoba. Meanwhile, the monitor overseeing the sale of former HBC leases has recommended that the court reject a proposed purchase by billionaire Ruby Liu.
On our radar
- Today: Data will be released on Canadian retail sales for June.
- Also: All eyes are on U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell ahead of his final Jackson Hole speech.
- Watching: Mark Carney and Donald Trump spoke by phone in what the Canadian side described as a productive and wide-ranging conversation that touched on trade, security and Ukraine.
- Questioning: The youngest age group of first-time homebuyers accounts for a large share of purchases in Ontario, according to new data. It’s a surprising trend that is raising questions about how unaffordable housing actually is in the province.
A man who was previously convicted for stealing $48-million of cryptocurrency in Canada has been found guilty by a U.S. court for a similar heist and sentenced to one year in prison.The Globe and Mail
In focus
A $48-million crypto heist gets a sequel
Hi, I’m Ethan Lou. I’m the opinion editor in Report on Business. Before I came to this job, in the summer of 2022, I published a story in Toronto Life about a big crypto heist by a young man.
The story chronicled how a teenager from Hamilton stole nearly $50-million in crypto in what police said was the biggest such theft against an individual (as opposed to a company, where the record is US$1.5-billion).
The victim: an American investor and early bitcoin adopter. Ultimately, for reasons still unclear, the young man was arrested by a police tactical team.
The authorities had withheld the young man’s name because he was underage at the time of the crime. That made any reporting difficult. The story was the product of long, careful investigative work. (Even though I eventually discovered the young man’s name, I did not use it, and The Globe and Mail is similarly not using it.)
That same summer of 2022, I sat in a Hamilton courtroom as the teen promised he was “very sorry” about the crime. His lawyer said he now wanted to use his skills for good. He hoped to work in cybersecurity – “a fitting way,” his lawyer said, “for this case to come full circle.” The judge handed him probation, noting his age and the year he had already spent in pretrial custody.
But the story ain’t over.
This week, I write its sequel in The Globe.
It turns out that while the young man was appearing in that courtroom apologizing, he was simultaneously deep into another heist. This one, despite bringing in under US$1-million, had garnered international attention and shaken the crypto community. The scam targeted some of the biggest names in the world of NFT (non-fungible token) digital artwork.
For that, the young man is now serving a one-year prison sentence in the United States.
Court documents recently unsealed in Alexandria, Va., show that, during his sentencing period in Ontario, the teen had quietly obtained access to Twitter’s internal “partner support panel” – a tool meant for customer service agents and important clients. He used that backdoor to hijack high-profile accounts like Beeple’s (yes, that Beeple, the one who sold a US$69-million NFT). Working with other scammers, the young man posted links to purported NFT giveaways that would instead drain victims’ digital wallets.
The case shines a spotlight not just on the young industry of crypto, estimated to be worth more than US$4-trillion, but also the rising cybersecurity dangers as more of our lives move online.
The dynamics among the scammers were also particularly interesting to me. The young man grew up with an absent father and in a household under financial strain. During his school years, he “was socially isolated, bullied for his weight.” He became a cybercriminal at a young age but now, with his latest crime, the young man has become the elder statesman.
Prosecution describes him as “a mentor” to an American minor involved in the scam. The young man from Hamilton had, in effect, graduated from thief to arms dealer – selling access, coaching others and extracting kickbacks.
Court documents underscore a timeless truth: There is no honour among thieves. Betrayal and drama was all around. This new piece traces that entire arc, which ends in Portugal.
Charted
Moving along
Co-operation among large investors, industry leaders and governments is at its highest level in years as both sides aim to get major projects off the ground. Demand for new infrastructure, energy and defence investment is surging, and so is investors’ willingness to explore big-ticket investments in projects of national importance, Blake Hutcheson, the chief executive of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, said in an interview.
Bookmarked
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Morning update
Global markets edged higher as traders awaited a key speech from U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell this morning that could shed light on the direction of monetary policy
Wall Street futures were in positive territory, while TSX futures pointed higher after Canada’s main stock market closed above 28,000 for the first time yesterday.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.22 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.09 per cent, Germany’s DAX rose 0.09 per cent and France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.18 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.05 per cent lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.9 per cent.
The Canadian dollar traded at 71.86 U.S. cents.