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Two home invasions in France. Victims hospitalized. Roughly $667K in crypto stolen at knifepoint. And the suspect allegedly celebrated it all on a Telegram channel called “EMPIRE.”
On-chain investigator ZachXBT published a detailed thread tracing the laundering trail of a suspect operating under the aliases M1llionz and RichMilly666, ultimately prompting Tether to freeze $93K in USDT tied to a specific Ethereum address. It’s a case study in how blockchain’s permanent ledger can turn a criminal’s digital paper trail into a liability.
Two robberies, one brutal week
The first robbery took place on April 17, 2026. Approximately 7.2 BTC, worth around $557K at the time, was stolen during a violent home invasion that left multiple people hospitalized.
Three days later, on April 20, a second robbery yielded another $110K in crypto. Victims were reportedly restrained and threatened into handing over access to their wallets.
Following the money through the blockchain
ZachXBT’s investigation mapped out a laundering path that moved stolen Bitcoin through Chainflip, a cross-chain bridging protocol, before routing funds into KuCoin. From there, portions were swapped into USDT on the Ethereum network.
Exodus wallets linked to the suspect showed around $84K received directly from the thefts, suggesting the individual was consolidating stolen assets across multiple addresses. The on-chain breadcrumbs connected back to specific email addresses and the Telegram channel “EMPIRE,” where M1llionz allegedly promoted fraudulent services while showing off a lavish lifestyle.
ZachXBT’s findings led directly to Tether freezing $93K in USDT at the Ethereum address 0x47967fe27f07fb54e9f4daa2541c0f75e27ddde7. That freeze effectively renders those tokens unmovable and unusable, locking the funds in place until legal proceedings or further investigation can proceed.
Tether’s role as crypto’s freeze button
Tether’s ability to freeze USDT tokens has become one of the more consequential features of the stablecoin ecosystem. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, which operate without a central authority capable of reversing or blocking transactions, USDT has a built-in administrative function that allows Tether to blacklist specific addresses.
Tether has frozen billions of USDT across various criminal investigations over the years. In this case, the freeze captured only a fraction of the total stolen amount. $93K out of $667K means roughly 14% of the haul was locked.
The growing threat of physical crypto crime
ZachXBT has become one of the most prolific independent investigators in the space, with a track record of uncovering scams, tracing laundered funds, and contributing to asset freezes and recoveries.
No arrest has been reported in connection with the M1llionz case as of now. The suspect’s real identity, while potentially known to investigators through the email addresses and aliases ZachXBT uncovered, has not been publicly confirmed by any law enforcement agency.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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