Authorities have taken into custody a son of a US contractor on Saint Martin after an investigation into a huge crypto theft related to government-held digital assets. This is a step forward in an investigation that started with a blockchain dispute.
FBI Director Kash Patel has confirmed that John Daghita has been taken into custody. He said that this has involved constant coordination between French and US law enforcement.
The case began with an argument on Telegram rather than an investigation by the government. In January 2026, blockchain investigator ZachXBT identified Daghita, who was also known as “Lick.” Daghita had unknowingly revealed the control of the large crypto wallet in public during a public “band-for-band” exchange.
Source: X
Investigators traced at least $24.9 million, which has been found to be transferred to a wallet related to the US Marshals Service.
There has also been an identification of over $90 million in suspicious transactions. This could be a sign of further theft of cryptocurrencies related to federal asset holdings.
Daghita is the son of Dean Daghita, who is the head of Command Services & Support, a Virginia-based company that was awarded a contract worth $4 million to handle seized cryptocurrency for the US Marshals Service.
Some of the funds believed to be stolen came from cryptocurrency wallets that held assets seized after the 2016 hack of Bitfinex. This finding intensified scrutiny of federal oversight systems.
The case revealed underlying structural issues in the management of digital assets by the federal government.
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A report released in 2025 revealed that the USMS was having trouble balancing the agency’s crypto assets. This became an issue when the USMS took over the US Bitcoin Reserve.
CMDSS has also faced a protest from a rival company, Wave Digital Assets. The latter argued that CMDSS did not have the necessary qualifications to work in the field of safe custody services. The Government Accountability Office, however, rejected the complaint.
The charges brought against Daghita are not publicly known, as they remain sealed. Daghita is currently awaiting his extradition proceedings.
The government believes that there will be further evidence as different government institutions look into the patterns of crypto theft in different accounts. The case may shape the future of security protocols designed to prevent federal crypto theft.
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