The secret life of Alexandre Cazes, alleged dark web mastermind
Cazes estimated his cash, cryptocurrencies, luxury cars and properties at $23 million US
AlexandreCazeswas just 25, but according to U.S. government documentshe wasthe alleged mastermind behindAlphaBay,the most profitabledark web marketplacein the world, and a millionaire who owned luxury carsand multiple propertiesin Thailand,Cyprus and Antigua.
By his own accounting, Cazeswas worth about $23 million US, including $12.5 million in properties and vehicles, and the rest in cash and cryptocurrencies.
Cazes, from Trois-Rivires, Que., was arrested July 5 in Thailand, the result of what U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions called "one of the most important criminal investigations of this entire year,"an investigation that saw the shuttering of a market that offeredweapons, drugs andstolen identities to over 200,000 customers.
Cazeswas found dead in a Thai jail a week later, on July 12.U.S. Justice officials saidhetook his own life.
Despite hisapparentsuccess in creating an extremelyprofitable illegal marketplace, he was brought down by aHotmailaddress and anunencryptedlaptop.
'A brilliant guy'
"He was always an extremely brilliant guy. I don't know, the fact that he was a guy who really liked money,that made me feel like he was going to do a scam at some point," said JoLacerte, a friend ofCazes, in an interview with Radio-Canada,CBC'sFrench-language service.
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"I know his mother, she's super friendly.It's too bad that she's living this. It's too badthat he used his intelligence for this."
In the "About Me"section of AlphaBay, Cazes wrotethat he wanted the site to become "the largest eBay-style underworld marketplace," according to documents from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The dark web is a secretive part of the internet that requires special software to access. Connections are routed through multiple layers of servers, so users can stay anonymous, and websites on the dark web aren't indexed, which means you won't stumble across them through a Google search.
AlphaBaywas estimated to have sales in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually, making it "many times"larger thanSilk Road, a previous dark web marketplace shut down by the U.S. government in 2013.
Doubts about allegations
Cazes had been living in Thailand for almost four years, according to his father, Martin Cazes. He started AlphaBay in July 2014, before launching it publicly in December 2014.
U.S. authorities were able to findCazesthroughhisHotmailaddress, Pimp_Alex_91@hotmail.com. The address appeared in the welcome email header sent to new AlphaBay users in 2014, as well as in the header of password recovery emails.
Martin Cazes told CBC News over Facebooklast week that he doubted his son was the mastermind portrayed in legal documents and that he wouldn't comment extensively until an autopsy was performed.
Cazes'sstepmother, KathyGauthier, said that she andAlexandre'sfatherhad doubts about the FBI's allegations.
"We are tired and wouldlike to accept the situation. My spouse talked last week about whoAlexandrewas, and we still think that,and we'd like to move forward," she wrote in a text message to CBC News.
"If what the FBI says is all true, it's not the Alexandre Cazes that we know, but we will love him anyway and forgive him."
The RCMPin Montreal told CBC News that Cazes had been stopped in January byTrois-Rivirespolice and that he had produced a Thai driver's licence and said he was visiting his mother.
The RCMP searched a residence and a businessthough it did not specify addressesand seized several computers. Martin Cazes said his house wasn't searched.
"We are considering the possibility of potential associates in Canada," RCMP spokesperson Erique Gassesaid in an email.
Cars, houses, money
At the time of his arrest, Cazeswas living large in Thailand, with multiple properties, luxury vehiclesand lots of money. He was married, and had even purchased a villa near his own house for his in-laws.
His assets were listed in a spreadsheeton his unencrypted laptop, which authorities, including the Royal Thai Police, the FBI and the DEA,found when they raided his primary residence in Thailand on July 5.
They also discovered he was logged into the AlphaBaywebsite as the siteadministrator and they were able to find passwords for AlphaBay servers, and then seized information and cryptocurrencies from those servers.
Cazes's assets seized by the U.S. governmentincluded$6.6 million Cdn inbitcoin, $2.4 million inEtherium, $622,000 inMonero, and $980,512 inZcash. He hadat least 11bank accounts andcryptocurrencyexchange accountsregistered in hisname or his wife's name in Thailand, Liechtenstein,Switzerlandand St. Vincentandthe Grenadines.
Beyond cash, Cazes had a taste for luxury vehicles, including a 2013 Lamborghini Aventador, a Porsche Panamera, a Mini Cooper and a BMW motorcycle.
He had three properties in Bangkok, and a vacation property in Phuket, Thailand. Cazes was also pursuing economic citizenship in Cyprus and had hired a citizenship consultant in the country. In February he obtained Antiguancitizenshipby purchasing property there.
Link to Roosh V
Cazes was an active member of a forum run by American blogger Roosh V, whose real name is Daryush Valizadeh, a self-styled pickup artists who is known for misogynistic behaviour and for giving men advice on how to sleep with as many women as possible.
According to the forfeiture document, Cazesmade regular payments to the RooshV forum for his membership fee, and frequently posted about his financial success. He bragged about buying a Porsche Panamera, and when other users doubted his ownership, he posted a video of himself driving the vehicle.
He also posted abouthow to pick up Thai women, and bragged about getting a "solid prenup," sleeping with women outside his marriage, and telling his wife "what her upper weight limit was."
He paidfor his membership with a PayPal account, which was linked to other bank accounts in his own name, including a Canadian bankaccount.
In a post attributed to Roosh V on the forum, Rooshwrote that he didn't know Cazes was the AlphaBayadministrator, and that he would cooperate with any valid subpoena. He did say that Cazes "did not appear to bring any illegality to the forum."
See the indictment here:
With files from Catou MacKinnon, Jennifer O'Bomsawin and Sarah Leavitt
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