Yue Zhou from Queens, New York, was indicted on charges of planning a murder after being arrested on June 5, 2024, in the Eastern District of Virginia. On July 3, she was transferred to the Eastern District of New York.
Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Ivan J. Arvelo, US Department of Homeland Security, New York (HSI), announced the charges.
US Attorney Peace stated that Zhou had hired a hit man to kill her romantic partner’s wife via a website that offered illegal services and accepted cryptocurrency as payment. Her plan was thwarted because the website turned out to be a scam.
New York Special Agent in Charge Arvelo added that the defendant had offered the hitman cryptocurrency, cash, and sexual favors to kill her partner’s spouse and child. The website she used was fake, and her ploy was soon revealed.
Details of the crime
According to court documents, Zhou tried to hire a hitman through a site on the Dark Web between March 25, 2019, and April 4, 2019. Using a fake name on the site, she placed an order to have her partner’s wife murdered. She contracted a Ukrainian Bitcoin exchange service to pay for the murder and arranged to pay the website $5,000 in Bitcoin on her behalf.
The defendant paid a middleman in Brooklyn approximately $5,000 in cash and then asked the website administrator to confirm payment. After sending the funds, she gave a detailed description of the potential victim, including her home, her work schedule, and when to target her so that her husband wouldn’t get the blame.
Later, Zhou also tried to use the fake site to order a hit on her partner’s adult daughter. She texted the daughter’s neighbor in February 2021 to get the neighbor to kill her. Zhou offered them sexual favors and $10,000 to kill her partner’s daughter and dispose of the body in a lake. At the time, Zhou was unaware that the website was a third-party scam and didn’t actually have hitmen for hire.
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