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FBI tracks down man suspected of plotting major crimes via chats on Roblox

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The FBI tracked a man to his home in Texas after they suspected him of making threats in Roblox to commit real-world crime.

In an affidavit submitted to a Texas court on May 16, 2025, FBI special agent Carletta Carter described how authorities received a report from an unnamed Roblox player claiming to have witnessed a “possible domestic terrorist incident being discussed on Roblox.”

In images and statements provided by the witness, a Roblox user known as Crazz3pain was believed to have made threats in-game to “attack a Christian concert or event.”

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With billing information associated with Crazz3pain provided by Roblox, the FBI traced the account to an address in Texas, where they identified James W Burger.

RobloxRoblox hosts millions of user-created games.

After executing a search warrant on Burger’s home, the FBI discovered that a family member had installed a keylogger (records inputs on a keyboard) on their computer, with the latter subsequently providing the logs to authorities.

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The logs – recording access to “RobloxPlayerBeta.exe” – were combined with Burger’s other devices, including an iPhone, to establish their involvement.

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In a voluntary interview with the FBI at his home, Burger provided login information for the Crazz3pain account and admitted to making similar statements to those shown in screenshots provided by the witness. Burger said his end goal was to “[G]et the hell out of the US and…if I can’t…then, martyrdom or bust.”

In searching Burger’s iPhone, the FBI discovered a note explaining “how to prevent leaving any DNA or fingerprints behind,” searches for firearms and ammunition, and phrases, including “festivals happening near me,” and “what is the most effective knife type.”

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Carter also described how Burger had taken screenshots of his user name, crazz3pain, being banned from Roblox. “According to Burger in the interview, being banned in Roblox was a familiar occurrence,” Carter noted.

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The affidavit concluded by recommending that courts issue a warrant for Burger’s arrest.



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How the Farm Industry Spied on Animal Rights Activists and Pushed the FBI to Treat Them as Bioterrorists
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How the Farm Industry Spied on Animal Rights Activists and Pushed the FBI to Treat Them as Bioterrorists

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Hundreds of emails and internal documents reviewed by WIRED reveal top lobbyists and representatives of America’s agricultural industry led a persistent and often covert campaign to surveil, discredit, and suppress animal rights organizations for nearly a decade, while relying on corporate spies to infiltrate meetings and functionally serve as an informant for the FBI.

The documents, mostly obtained through public records requests by the nonprofit Property of the People, detail a secretive and long-running collaboration between the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate (WMDD)—whose scope today includes Palestinian rights activists and the recent wave of arson targeting Teslas—and the Animal Agriculture Alliance (AAA), a nonprofit trade group representing the interests of US farmers, ranchers, veterinarians, and others across America’s food supply chain.

Since at least 2018, documents show, the AAA has been supplying federal agents with intelligence on the activities of animal rights groups such as Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), with records of emails and meetings reflecting the industry’s broader mission to convince authorities that activists are the preeminent “bioterrorism” threat to the United States. Spies working for the AAA during its collaboration with the FBI went undercover at activism meetings, obtaining photographs, audio recordings, and other strategic material. The group’s ties with law enforcement were leveraged to help shield industry actors from public scrutiny, to press for investigations into its most powerful critics, and to reframe the purpose and efforts of animal rights protesters as a singular national security threat.

The records further show that state authorities have cited protests as a reason to conceal information about disease outbreaks at factory farms from the public.

Zoe Rosenberg, a UC Berkeley student and animal cruelty investigator at DxE, says she’s hardly surprised that powerful private-sector groups are working to surveil the organization, but she finds their work with the police paradoxical. “If anyone should have the ear of law enforcement, it’s animal cruelty investigators exposing rampant violations of the law leading to real animals suffering and dying horrific deaths,” she tells WIRED.

Profiled by WIRED in 2019, DxE is a grassroots animal rights organization dedicated to nonviolent direct actions, including covert operations that often involve rescuing animals and documenting practices at factory farms that the group considers inhumane.

Rosenberg, 22, is facing charges in California for removing four chickens from a slaughterhouse in Sonoma County in 2023. In addition to minor charges such as trespassing, she was also hit with a felony count of conspiracy to commit those misdemeanors—a discretionary charge that Sonoma County’s prosecutor justified by portraying Rosenberg as a “biosecurity risk” in light of avian flu.

According to Rosenberg, DxE relies on biosecurity protocols that go “above and beyond” industry standards, including quarantining its investigators from birds for a full week before and after entering farms. “All of our investigators before entering a facility shower with hot water and soap and put on freshly washed clothes that have been washed thoroughly and dried on high heat to kill viruses and bacteria,” she says. “Everything is sanitized and then sanitized again upon leaving the facility.”

Rosenberg does not deny removing the chickens, which she named Poppy, Aster, Ivy, and Azalea. “Generally, if we feel an animal is going to die from neglect or maltreatment if we don’t remove them from the facility, then we feel that it is justified and necessary to step in to save their life,” she says. Her attorney, Chris Carraway, says that DxE tried reporting allegations of health violations at the facility to “the point of futility.” Rosenberg says reporting alleged violations often leads to getting bounced between offices; a “never-ending loop of no one agency wanting to take responsibility and enforce animal welfare laws.”



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FBI Takes Down $24 Million Crypto Cache from Russian Malware Mastermind
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FBI Takes Down $24 Million Crypto Cache from Russian Malware Mastermind

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The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a civil forfeiture complaint to seize over $24 million in cryptocurrency assets tied to Rustam Rafailevich Gallyamov, a Russian national accused of leading the development and distribution of the Qakbot malware.

According to a press release issued on May 22, the DOJ alleges Gallyamov played a central role in deploying Qakbot as part of a broader cybercrime operation that infected computers globally and enabled ransomware attacks.

From Malware Deployment to Global Ransomware Attacks

Federal prosecutors claim that Gallyamov, who resides in Moscow, operated the botnet infrastructure behind Qakbot, a sophisticated piece of malware first deployed in 2008. The malware was used to compromise computers and then provide access to co-conspirators, who executed ransomware campaigns using variants such as REvil, Conti, Black Basta, and Cactus.

In return, Gallyamov reportedly received a share of the ransom proceeds. The DOJ emphasized that this seizure reflects a continued international effort involving law enforcement agencies from the US, Europe, and Canada to disrupt cybercriminal networks.

According to the DOJ’s indictment, Gallyamov’s cyber operations intensified from 2019 onwards, as Qakbot was used to infiltrate thousands of systems and build an expansive botnet. Once compromised, these systems were handed off to ransomware operators.

In August 2023, a US-led multinational task force successfully disrupted the Qakbot network and seized various crypto assets tied to the scheme, including 170 BTC and millions in stablecoins such as USDT and USDC. Despite that takedown, the DOJ alleges that Gallyamov and his partners continued targeting victims using alternative methods.

The latest DOJ complaint details how the accused shifted tactics following the 2023 disruption, including employing “spam bomb” techniques that tricked employees into opening access to internal systems. Prosecutors assert that this newer approach allowed ransomware deployment to continue well into 2025.

These attacks reportedly included the use of Black Basta and Cactus ransomware to target victims in the United States. As part of the ongoing investigation, the FBI executed another seizure on April 25, 2025, retrieving over 30 BTC and more than $700,000 in stablecoins.

DOJ’s International Coordination and Recovery Efforts

The DOJ’s civil forfeiture complaint aims to formalize the seizure of over $24 million in illicit crypto proceeds, with the intent of returning those funds to victims. This effort underscores a coordinated global campaign involving the FBI’s Los Angeles and Milwaukee field offices, Europol, and cybersecurity divisions from France, Germany, the Netherlands, and other countries.

The DOJ credited this collaboration for enabling swift identification and disruption of Gallyamov’s operations. Assistant US Attorneys from the Central District of California and officials from the DOJ’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section are leading the prosecution.

In public remarks, DOJ and FBI officials reiterated their commitment to dismantling global cybercrime infrastructure and using all available legal tools including indictments, forfeiture actions, and international law enforcement cooperation to hold perpetrators accountable and compensate victims. US Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California said:

The forfeiture action against more than $24 million in virtual assets also demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to seizing ill-gotten assets from criminals in order to ultimately compensate victims.

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Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.



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Kash Patel, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, May 8, 2025.
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FBI Director Kash Patel Abruptly Closes Internal Watchdog Office Overseeing Surveillance Compliance

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If there’s one thing the Federal Bureau of Investigation does well, it’s mass surveillance. Several years ago, then attorney general William Barr established an internal office to curb the FBI’s abuse of one controversial surveillance law. But recently, the FBI’s long-time hater (and, ironically, current director) Kash Patel shut down the watchdog group with no explanation.

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Patel suddenly closed the Office of Internal Auditing that Barr created in 2020. The office’s leader, Cindy Hall, abruptly retired. People familiar with the matter told the outlet that the closure of the aforementioned watchdog group alongside the Office of Integrity and Compliance are part of internal reorganization. Sources also reportedly said that Hall was trying to expand the office’s work, but her attempts to onboard new employees were stopped by the Trump administration’s hiring freezes.

The Office of Internal Auditing was a response to controversy surrounding the FBI’s use of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The 2008 law primarily addresses surveillance of non-Americans abroad. However, Jeramie Scott, senior counselor at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told Gizmodo via email that the FBI “has repeatedly abused its ability to search Americans’ communications ‘incidentally’ collected under Section 702” to conduct warrantless spying.

Patel has not released any official comment regarding his decision to close the office. But Elizabeth Goitein, senior director at the Brennan Center for Justice, told Gizmodo via email, “It is hard to square this move with Mr. Patel’s own stated concerns about the FBI’s use of Section 702.”

Last year, Congress reauthorized Section 702 despite mounting concerns over its misuses. Although Congress introduced some reforms, the updated legislation actually expanded the government’s surveillance capabilities. At the time, Patel slammed the law’s passage, stating that former FBI director Christopher Wray, who Patel once tried to sue, “was caught last year illegally using 702 collection methods against Americans 274,000 times.” (Per the New York Times, Patel is likely referencing a declassified 2023 opinion by the FISA court that used the Office of Internal Auditing’s findings to determine the FBI made 278,000 bad queries over several years.)

According to Goitein, the office has “played a key role in exposing FBI abuses of Section 702, including warrantless searches for the communication of members of Congress, judges, and protesters.” And ironically, Patel inadvertently drove its creation after attacking the FBI’s FISA applications to wiretap a former Trump campaign advisor in 2018 while investigating potential Russian election interference. Trump and his supporters used Patel’s attacks to push their own narrative dismissing any concerns. Last year, former representative Devin Nunes, who is now CEO of Truth Social, said Patel was “instrumental” to uncovering the “hoax and finding evidence of government malfeasance.”

Although Patel mostly peddled conspiracies, the Justice Department conducted a probe into the FBI’s investigation that raised concerns over “basic and fundamental errors” it committed. In response, Barr created the Office of Internal Auditing, stating, “What happened to the Trump presidential campaign and his subsequent Administration after the President was duly elected by the American people must never happen again.”

But since taking office, Patel has changed his tune about FISA. During his confirmation hearing, Patel referred to Section 702 as a “critical tool” and said, “I’m proud of the reforms that have been implemented and I’m proud to work with Congress moving forward to implement more.” However, reforms don’t mean much by themselves. As Goitein noted, “Without a separate office dedicated to surveillance compliance, [the FBI’s] abuses could go unreported and unchecked.”

An annual transparency report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence shows that the FBI’s searches for Americans’ information has fallen. Last year, the FBI only used 5,518 query terms about Americans, compared to 57,094 in 2023 and 119,383 in 2022. While this looks like progress, it doesn’t mean that the Office of Internal Auditing’s work is done.

“The FBI should maintain its audits,” Scott said, “and if they do, the FBI must make very clear who is responsible for continuing the internal audits and ensure the oversight gets done.”



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