US Marshals Investigate Claims around Stealing $40M in Seized Crypto

US authorities have confirmed that an investigation is underway into claims that the son of a federal contractor tasked with safeguarding 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 details of the case. The investigation centers on social media claims that John Daghita, son of Command Services & Support (CMDSS) president Dean Daghita, gained unauthorized access to wallets managed under the federal asset protection program.

Crypto sleuth ZachXBT disclosed on Friday that he had traced a wallet linked to Daghita holding about $23 million in crypto connected to as much as $90 million in assets believed to have been seized by the government in 2024 and 2025. ZachXBT later said that he had reported to authorities another wallet holding 12,540 Ether (ETH), worth about $36 million at the time, tied to Daghita. 

“John […] sent me 0.6767 ETH ($1.9K) of the stolen government funds from 0xd8bc to my public wallet address,” said ZachXBT in a Monday X post. “Any stolen funds received will be sent to a USG seizure address.”

According to ZachXBT’s investigation, wallets allegedly controlled by Daghita received about $40 million in digital assets from addresses associated with confiscated US government funds. Daghita’s father heads CMDSS, which was awarded a contract by the US Marshals Service in 2024 related to the custody of seized crypto.

Related: South Korea loses $48 million in seized Bitcoin to phishing scam: Report

Patrick Witt, the director of the White House Crypto Council, said in a Monday X post that he was “on it,” referencing ZachXBT’s claims.

How much crypto does the US government hold?

According to data from BitcoinTreasuries.NET, US authorities may hold as much as 328,372 Bitcoin (BTC) through various seizures such as assets from the hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex. If confirmed, the assets would be worth about $30 billion at the time of publication.