A Beverly Hills man admitted to utilizing bitcoin in an try to rent a hitman to homicide his ex-girlfriend after she wished to finish their temporary relationship, federal prosecutors mentioned.
Scott Berkett, 25, pleaded responsible within the murder-for-hire plot by which he paid about $13,000 in bitcoin for the lady’s homicide, the US Legal professional’s Workplace for the Central District of California introduced Wednesday.
The California native met the sufferer on-line in 2020 after which the lady flew out to Los Angeles to see him in October of that yr. However the sufferer tried to interrupt issues off a number of instances after that journey with Berkett, whose habits she mentioned was “sexually aggressive,” prosecutors mentioned.
In April 2021, the sufferer’s relative known as and texted Berkett’s father after Berkett stored bothering her. Berkett at one level replied “think about this matter closed.”
However Berkett admitted in his plea settlement he as an alternative sought a hitman through a web site on the darknet he thought supplied murder-for-hire companies. He supplied the darknet group with particular instructions and particulars concerning the sufferer.
An undercover police officer posing as a hitman contacted Berkett, the feds mentioned.
Berkett confirmed images of the sufferer the undercover officer despatched him and reiterated that he paid in bitcoin for her slaying. He requested additional proof of her homicide and paid one other $1,000 by Western Union for her demise earlier than he was arrested in Could 2021, the US Legal professional’s workplace mentioned.
He pleaded responsible to at least one rely of use of interstate services to commit murder-for-hire and will face ten years in jail.
Berkett might be sentenced in federal court docket September 12.
