US authorities have confirmed that an investigation is underway into allegations that the son of a federal contractor charged with protecting seized digital assets stole more than $40 million in cryptocurrency.
A spokesperson for the US Marshals Service confirmed to Cointelegraph that “the matter is under investigation” but declined to comment on the details of the case. The investigation focuses on social media allegations that John Daghita, son of Command and Support Services (CMDSS) Chairman Dean Daghita, gained unauthorized access to wallets managed under the federal Asset Protection Program.
Crypto detective ZachXBT revealed Friday that he had traced a wallet linked to Daghita holding about $23 in crypto connected to up to $90 million in assets believed to be seized by the government in 2024 and 2025. ZachXBT later said he had reported to authorities another wallet containing 12,540 Ether (ETH), worth around $36 million at the time, linked to Daghita.
“John […] sent me 0.6767 ETH ($1.9k) government funds stolen from 0xd8bc to my public wallet address,” ZachXBT said in a Monday.
Source: ZachXBT
According to ZachXBT’s investigation, wallets allegedly controlled by Daghita received approximately $40 million in digital assets from addresses associated with confiscated US government funds. Daghita’s father heads the CMDSS, which received a contract from the US Marshals Service in 2024 for the custody of seized cryptocurrencies.
Related: South Korea Loses $48M in Seized Bitcoin to Phishing Scam: Report
Patrick Witt, director of the White House Crypto Council, said Monday
How much crypto does the US government hold?
According to data from BitcoinTreasuries.NET, US authorities may be holding up to 328,372 Bitcoins (BTC) through various seizures such as assets from the hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex. If confirmed, the assets would be worth approximately $30 billion at the time of publication.
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