MARION COUNTY, Fla. – An expectant mother victimized in a cryptocurrency rental scam got her money back thanks to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office’s advanced tracking methods.
Detective Richard Truman, a crypto asset investigator with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, explains that scammers are revolutionizing with technology, and said they seek out cryptocurrency specifically because of how easy it is for them to launder the money.
Last year, a local family found what appeared to be a rental home. They moved in and began paying rent for several months through a crypto ATM. However, the home was never actually available for rent.
“It was actually for sale by OpenDoor,” Truman said. “The reason why they found it was because they were actually doing a final inspection on the house and they found that the family was living in there while they were doing the final inspection.”
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office tracked down the suspect and the money using a tool from TRM Labs, which carried out a blockchain analysis.
“What we’re able to do basically is it provides a visualization so that we can track these transactions and funds,” Truman explained.
Truman said they were able to track down where the money went in this case.
“So it went into an exchange, Binance, but it was actually being operated by its suspect in Nigeria, Emmanuel Morais, who was essentially running a money laundering exchange for scammers,” Truman said.
On July 3, the sheriff’s office returned the money to the mother of the family, just a week after her baby was born.
This case isn’t isolated. Across the state, law enforcement has seen a jump in crypto cases, but in Marion County, the office has also seen an increase in the amount of money recovered as a result of the tool from TRM.
In 2024, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office had 75 crypto cases and recovered $292,000. So far in 2025, they have had 92 crypto cases and have recovered a little more than $5.9 million.
Truman offers this advice to residents: “If it’s too good to be true and you get that gut feeling, it probably is. So, you know, let it go and like I said, call us if you need to vet anything.”
You can call the Marion County Sheriff’s Office’s non-emergency line at 352-732-9111.