The story then went full-on Breaking Bad nuts, with
Redandwhite demanding $150,000 for a "non-clean" kill and
$300,000 for a "clean" version. Roberts said that he knew
the value of such things; he claimed to have paid $80,000
for a previous "clean" hit, and he wanted a discount.
Did I say earlier that the story had already gone off the
rails into Crazytown? Reader—I was wrong. Because a
federal indictment unsealed separately today in a Maryland
court says that Roberts had in fact arranged such an
$80,000 hit just a few weeks earlier. Not crazy enough?
Turns out that the "hitman" in this first attempt was
actually a federal agent.
Roberts was upset that one of his employees—records show
these employees were paid between $1,000 and $2,000 a week
—had stolen from Roberts and eventually managed to get
himself arrested by dealing with an undercover agent.
Roberts wanted the employee tortured so that he would
return the missing Bitcoins. Not knowing much about
hitmen, Roberts ended up talking to the very undercover
agent who had helped bust his employee.
