US Chief District Judge William Fremming Nielsen sentenced 56-year-old American Ronald Craig Ilg to eight years in federal prison.
The latter hired hitmen on the Dark Web to kidnap his wife and beat up his former colleague, paying them more than $60,000 in bitcoin.
Maximum Penalty for the Doctor
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) Announced that Ronald Ilg will serve 96 months in federal prison and will be supervised for three years after his release. He will also pay $25,000 in restitution and a $100,000 fine.
Former Spokane, Wash. neonatologist Hired hitmen on the Dark Web in 2021 who were supposed to injure a former professional colleague of his. Ilg particularly requested the criminals to break the victim’s hands, paying more than $2,000 in bitcoin for the wrongdoing.
The next victim was his estranged wife. Ilg ordered the criminals to kidnap her and inject her with heroin so that she could drop the divorce proceedings. He paid them approximately $60,000 in bitcoin and promised a bonus upon mission completion.
The FBI intercepted Ilg’s messages on the Dark Web and launched an investigation. At first, the doctor falsely claimed that he paid the hitmen to kill him and not hurt other people.
He later sent a letter to a key witness in the case, begging her to marry him so he could control her testimony in court. The American even promised to pay tuition for her children to attend St. Aloysius Catholic School and Gonzaga High School.
Judge Nielsen, who handed down the maximum sentence, described Ilg’s crime as “truly heinous and even wicked.” He further said:
“A doctor’s goal in life is to protect people, to keep them alive, not to take overt steps to do otherwise.”
Vanessa Waldref, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, said this case demonstrates how violent individuals can exploit cyberspace and cryptocurrency to finance their dire intentions.
Assistant US Attorney Richard Barker added that the Ilg tried to profit from its crimes by selling the story to the media. He congratulated the victims on their “incredible courage” and shed more light on the doctor’s plans:
“Even before Mr. Ilg sent his terrifying messages through the dark web and paid more than $60,000 to various suspected hitmen, Mr. Ilg tried to manipulate and maintain control of his victims, sending them harassing text messages, putting GPS trackers in their cars and even subjecting them to domestic abuse.”
The Jessica Sledge Case
The American authorities have some experience with cases like last summer sentenced Jessica Sledge, a resident of Pelahatchie, Mississippi, to ten years in prison.
She paid $10,000 in bitcoin to a dark web hitman who was supposed to kill her husband, but the plot was caught by the FBI. In addition to prison time, she paid a $1,000 fine and law enforcement officers will monitor her actions three years after her release.
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