Prosecutors in New York presented evidence showing that Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting, had a cryptocurrency seed phrase when arrested. The slip of paper was found in his backpack during his capture in Pennsylvania. This detail emerged during an ongoing pretrial hearing in Manhattan.
Luigi Mangione, a Baltimore native and former software engineer accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, faces scrutiny over items seized at his arrest. On Friday, during a pretrial evidence-suppression hearing in a Manhattan courtroom, police testimony revealed that officers recovered a slip of paper from Mangione's backpack containing a cryptocurrency seed phrase. A photo displayed in court showed the paper, with its center obscured by a redaction labeled "Redacted Crypto Seed Phrase." No specifics were given about any associated cryptocurrency accounts.
A crypto seed phrase serves as a random sequence of words to secure and access cryptocurrency holdings. Mangione was arrested five days after Thompson's fatal shooting on December 2024, at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania. At the time, authorities found approximately $7,000 in large bills on him, along with tech items including a MacBook laptop, an iPhone, multiple thumb drives, and a small circuit board wrapped in cardboard—highlighting his technical background.
This cryptocurrency detail had not been publicly disclosed before. Mangione's arrest sparked interest in the crypto community, leading to the launch of a LUIGI memecoin shortly after. The token briefly reached a $60 million market capitalization but soon collapsed; an initial $1,000 investment from mid-December 2024 would now be worth about $25.
The hearing, focused on suppressing evidence from the arrest, enters its third week on Tuesday. Prosecutors continue to build their case against Mangione, who denies the charges.
