Inside a Wild Bitcoin Heist: Five-Star Hotels, Cash-Stuffed Envelopes, and Vanishing Funds
As Kent Halliburton As he stood in the toilets of the Rosewood Hotel in central Amsterdam, thousands of miles from home, running his fingers through an envelope stuffed with crisp €10,000 bank notes, he began to wonder what he had gotten himself into.
Halliburton is the co-founder and CEO of Sazmining, a company that operates bitcoin mining hardware on behalf of clients, a model known as “mining as a service.” Halliburton is based in Peru, but Sazmining operates mining hardware from third-party data centers in Norway, Paraguay, Ethiopia and the United States.
As Halliburton recounts, he had flown to Amsterdam the day before, August 5, to meet Even and Maxim, two representatives of a wealthy Monegasque family. The family office had proposed purchasing hundreds of Bitcoin mining rigs from Sazmining, worth around $4 million, which the company would install in a facility currently under construction in Ethiopia. Before finalizing the deal, the family office requested to meet with Halliburton in person.
When Halliburton arrived at the Rosewood Hotel, he found Even and Maxim perched in a cabin. They made him seem like playboys, high-roller types – especially Maxim, who wore a beige three-piece suit and looked very polished, his long black hair parted in the middle. A Rolex stuck out from the back of his sleeve.
Over a three-course lunch — egg-topped ceviche, Chilean sea bass and cherry cake — they discussed the contours of the deal and exchanged details about their respective origins. Even was talkative and pleasant, telling stories about the explosive parties in Marrakech. Maxim was distant; he mainly stared at Halliburton, holding his gaze for long periods as if to assess him.
As a relationship-building exercise, Even proposed that Halliburton sell the family office for approximately $3,000 in bitcoin. Halliburton was initially hesitant, but considered it a special dating ritual. One of the guys slipped Halliburton the envelope full of money and told him to go to the bathroom, where he could count the amount in private. “It looked like something out of a James Bond movie,” says Halliburton. “It was all very exotic to me.”
Halliburton left in a taxi, somewhat perplexed by the meeting, but hopeful of closing the deal with the family office. For Sazmining, a small company with around 15 employees, it promised to be transformative.
Less than two weeks later, Halliburton had lost more than $200,000 worth of bitcoin to Even and Maxim. He didn’t know if Sazmining could survive the blow, or how the crooks had trapped him.
