Missouri Man Arrested for Extorting Former Employer With Bitcoin Ransom

A Missouri man, Daniel Rhyne, was arrested for attempting to extort his former employer, a New Jersey-based industrial company. Rhyne, a former core infrastructure engineer for the company, allegedly sent an extortion email on Nov. 25, 2023, claiming to have locked out or deleted the company’s IT administrators from its computer network and deleted server backups. He threatened further disruptions if a ransom of 20 bitcoin, approximately $750,000 at the time, was not paid. Investigations revealed Rhyne had accessed the company’s systems without authorization, altering administrator passwords and scheduling server shutdowns. He faces charges of extortion, intentional damage to a protected computer, and wire fraud, which carry potential penalties of up to 35 years in prison and $750,000 in fines.