Bitcoin Trading at Centre of High-Profile New Zealand Homicide Case
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In brief Prosecutors say Julia DeLuney faked crypto profits and requested $18,000 in fake withdrawal fees from her mother just two days before her death. Financial records show DeLuney lost over $40,000 USD on crypto in a year while funding trades with money from family, primarily her mother. Chainalysis told Decrypt that blockchain forensics helped trace the activity, countering assumptions of crypto anonymity in financial crimes. A New Zealand woman accused of murdering her elderly mother allegedly deployed a crypto exit scam just days before, extracting thousands through fabricated trading profits while hemorrhaging over $40,000 in crypto and Bitcoin investments the year before, prosecutors said Monday. Julia DeLuney faces murder charges in Wellington High Court for the death of her 79-year-old mother, Helen Gregory, at her Khandallah home on January 24, 2024. Prosecutors allege DeLuney staged the scene to make it appear her mother had fallen from an attic, while forensic experts concluded the fatal injuries, including multiple blunt force trauma to the head, were not consistent with a fall. Court testimony has now revealed how the former school teacher’s crypto trading addiction became central to the alleged homicide, according to NewstalkZB report. Prosecutors say DeLuney had been stealing from Gregory for months and used elaborate crypto scams to extract final payments before the murder. Financial records show that between January 2023 and January 2024, DeLuney transferred over $90,000 (NZD $156,555) to crypto platforms. Her earnings, including over $53,000 (NZD $92,000) in deposits from friends and family, and $26,000 (NZD $45,000) of that from her mother, were allegedly not enough to offset her spending. By early 2024, she was $40,902.69 (NZD $68,000) in deficit, according to New Zealand forensic accountant Eric Huang. Two days before Gregory’s death, DeLuney emailed her mother claiming a crypto investment made on her behalf…
