John Michael Musbach - kiddie porn wasn’t enough? Level up to murder for hire plot

20K and Bitcoin and Musbach and Besa Mafia gets you an indictment

This is going to be somewhat complicated - but it’s a worthwhile exercise in fully understanding how dogged Federal Law Enforcement Officers are (applicable to the FBI, DHS-HSI, IRS CI etc)

Child Pornography Turns to Murder-for-Hire:

Summer of 2015 Musbach utilized Internet Relay Chat (IRC) website to communicate with his victim. At the time the victim was only 13 years old. The investigation uncovered that Musbach use the IRC to both request and later receive sexually explicit videos and photographs from the minor victim. More disturbing is Musbach then sent the victim sexually explicit videos and photographs of himself.

COMPLAINT (ECF) as to JOHN MICHAEL MUSBACH

INDICTMENT via DOJ-OPA ¹on a single charge of 18 U.S.C. §1958 -Use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, which is why it’s important to read the 2020 Criminal Complaint

As you’ll note in the previously sealed Criminal Complaint - you wouldn’t know base on the indictment that, Bitcoin was in play as was a confidential informant.

“…as consideration for the receipt of anything of pecuniary value, that is, approximately 40 Bitcoin which then had a value of approximately $20,000 in United States currency…”

I have a sense of duty to warn and a moral obligation to give my readers a heads up. The Complaint/Affidavit contain facts that some might find difficult to read. 🌶your obligatory trigger warning🌶please proceed with caution

September of 2015 the victim informed MUSBACH that their parents contacted law enforcement. Thereafter law enforcement made contact with MUSBACH and instructed him to cease any and all contact with the minor-victim.

Setting aside the fact that MUSBACH pleaded² guilty to one count of “endangering the welfare of a child“ —in February 2018 MUSBACH received a two year suspended sentence. <tilts head back and screams WTFINGF, a freaking pedophile didn’t go to jail? New Jersey fix your shit> — if you haven’t figured it out thus far, we are talking about various state laws, we are not in the federal statutes, yet..

Now this is where things take a very interesting and vexing turn - enter Besa Mafia (to be fair I’m actually agnostic if this was a scammer or real website, of which most of it is now off the internet - or is it?)

Read paragraph 13 closely - live Facebook Account (archived) again I should caution there’s really no way to determine who’s running that Facebook Account but what is kind of odd is once I logged into an account and clicked that profile their Facebook algorithm immediately served up a pop-up message window. See lower right hand corner

Moreover if you click on the Facebook Page Transparency Tab you’ll note a few things, the page was created on November 22, 2020 and it only has five post all od which where posted between November 22 -23, 2020. The likelihood this is a parody Facebook Page/Account is high.

But Besa Mafia appears to have been a quasi elaborate hoax, as this 2016 Wired UK article explains. Should you be inclined this May 2016 Vice article offers a decent primer of Besa Mafia. In my opinion Besa Mafia isn’t fake or a hoax. It appears that they had a significant store front on Silk Road which is why page 5 of the August 2020 Complaint and Affidavit becomes important:

In my opinion (again this isn’t me stating it as fact) two opposing things can in fact be true, even simultaneously. Meaning it is likely that Besa Mafia was real and it’s likely Besa Mafia “services” might have been a scam. This is confirmed by paragraph 14 and footnote # 2 of the August 2020 Complaint/Affidavit

Further affirmed on page 8 of the August 2020 Complaint - Homeland Security Investigations, Newark, NJ -Received Information that an Individual Known as “agentisai” attempted to Hire a Hitman. The confidential informant provided investigators with actual private/encrypted messages between MUSBACH aka “agentisai“ and an YURA ³Cyberteam Administrator

Again as you can see in the August 2020 Complaint/Affidavit - you can’t manufacture this kind of evidence. That the plot to hire-a-hit-man was real and it appears MUSBACH was in fact very serious about hiring a hitman to murder his 13 year old victim (at the time of the “hit” the victim had turned 14)

And I shouldn’t joke about the casual nature of these private messages but MUSBACH cavalier and casual about paying $20,000 in BTC to murder his victim. Like he was ordering a latte. It is curious why after the YURA Cyberteam Admin tried to bait and switch MUSBACH why he was so compliant and what was the source of urgency.

But wait there more…like so much more - I know it might be untoward for me to find humor in reading the entire MUSBACH and YURA Cyberteam Admin exchanges but MUSBACH’s response “is this a joke” might be the best self own in recent memory.

05/20/16 - 19:33:00 -Admin “Hi, I am sorry to disappoint you. Unfortunattely (sic), our site is a scam, and we pass customer and target information to law enforcement”

Nexus not to be confused with Nexis™️

The misnomer that cryptocurrency is 100% anonymous might be one of the best propaganda campaigns in modern history. HSI subpoenaed CoinBase. From there investigators quickly determined user “agentisai” was in fact John Michael Musbach

October of 2019 HSI Investigators obtained a forensic image of electronic evidence derived from a hard drive at MUSBACH’S home and further confirmed

The dates & google search history. I guess one gold star for not googling
“how to hire a hit man”

The highlighted & annotated August 2020 Complaint/Affidavit found here. MUSBACH will be arraigned at a later date. /fin

1. 2019R01036DVC Musbach April 14, 2021 Indictment https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/press-release/file/1386926/download

2. I still think it’s hilarious that some tried to impugn my used of “pleaded” versus plead FFS the correct legalese is in fact “pleaded” <—the more you know but I’m not on Twitter pretending to be something I’m not so there’s that spicy fact nugget.

3. This is where things take a really odd turn: on April 10, 2021 CBS News-48 Hours;

A teen learns she's the target of a hit ordered on the dark web — "48 Hours" goes on a global manhunt to find the shadowy figure behind murder-for-hire sites. “the hunt for Yura”