The former neonatologist has been sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay more than $25,000 in restitution and a $100,000 fine.
Ronald Craig Ilg, 56, was sentenced to eight years in prison for hiring hitmen on the dark web to assault and kidnap victims. The doctor in Spokane, Washington paid $60,000 in Bitcoin as payment for the tasks he asked the hitmen to perform.
This should not be a surprise, as just last year, the US Department of Justice charged a cardiologist with developing two dangerous ransomware strains: Thanos and Jigsaw v.2.
Senior United States District Judge William Fremming Nielsen sentenced Ilg to 96 months in prison, ordering him to pay more than $25,000 in restitution and a $100,000 fine. Even after release, Ilg will be supervised for three years.
The former neonatologist used the dark web’s anonymity to direct purported hitmen to assault his victims; the first was a former colleague, also a Spokane-area doctor. Ilg paid the hitmen more than $2,000 worth of Bitcoin and specifically requested that the victim’s hands be broken or otherwise significantly injured. He also asked for proof of the task’s completion.
The second victim was his estranged wife. He paid the criminals approximately $60,000 worth of Bitcoin to kidnap and inject her with heroin so she would be forced to drop the divorce proceedings. He even promised the hitmen a bonus if the task was completed successfully.
However, the FBI successfully intercepted Ilg’s communications on the dark
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