A Washington state doctor has been accused of using the dark web in an attempt to employ someone to kidnap his estranged wife in exchange for a payout using bitcoin, according to a report.
Dr. Ronald Craig Ilg, a neonatal physician from Spokane, is facing federal charges of attempted kidnapping, the Spokesman-Review reported. If convicted, he could face 20 years in prison.
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The FBI learned of Ilg’s alleged plot after an unnamed international news organization probing the dark web alerted his wife, who then tipped off investigators, the report said.
Investigators reportedly found a posting they linked to Ilg on the dark web, which instructed that the woman be kidnapped, forced to inject herself with heroin twice a day and drop court proceedings against him.
The posting said a payment of $40,000 in bitcoin would be used in exchange for the kidnapping, the paper reported, citing court records.
Ilg denied the allegations during an interview with the FBI, according to court records.
However, the investigators said they discovered evidence of online negotiations regarding the kidnapping at Ilg’s home on April 11.
The paper said that investigators questioned Ilg at the Spokane International Airport upon his return from a trip to Mexico with another woman. During the interview, Ilg told the FBI that he spoke to the potential kidnapper on a cell phone, but discarded it at a resort in Mexico.
He claimed to have hired the person as a means of committing suicide, which would secure the transfer of his assets to the other woman and not his wife, the paper reported.
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The following day, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of an assault at Ilg’s home, the paper said, finding the doctor with a black eye and 46 missing Xanax pills. A note addressed to his estranged wife and the other woman was found nearby.
It read: “I am about to drift off to sleep. I pray that God forgives me.”
Ilg was being held in the Spokane County Jail, according to online jail records.