A young 'superstar entrepreneur' from Italy helped cybercriminals sell your passwords, FBI says

At age 13, Daniele Servadei taught himself how to code and build websites in his childhood bedroom in Italy.

By 18, he had co-founded a digital e-commerce startup, later estimating for a cryptocurrency news website that it processed $100 million in payments for thousands of clients worldwide.

Now 22, the college student once billed as a "superstar entrepreneur" sits in the Niagara County Jail.

He faces fraud charges the FBI says reflects his importance to cybercriminals.

Servadei trafficked usernames and passwords and helped cybercriminals sell some 12 million stolen email addresses and 5.7 million telephone numbers, according to a criminal complaint in U.S. District Court in Buffalo.

From 2020 until 2025, Servadei owned and managed Sellix, a London-based company whose e-commerce platform enabled businesses to accept payments in cryptocurrency. Sellix mainly hosted vendors selling cybercrime products, including denial-of-service attack services, hacking tools, stolen login credentials and copyright-infringing streaming sites, according to the affidavit from FBI Special Agent Ryan Rogers, who investigates computer intrusions, dark web marketplaces and malware developers.

Law enforcement examined 1,377 sites that used the Sellix platform and found that 875 of them offered illegal products and services, according to the FBI agent's affidavit.

Sellix attracted the FBI's attention because it provided the payment infrastructure for the cybercrime marketplace called Cracked, according to the affidavit. Before law enforcement seized it last year, Cracked connected customers with vendors of stolen logins and passwords, hacking tools, and other cybercrime products and services.

The online market with a global reach affected thousands of people in the Buffalo area. Area residents contacted by the FBI had no idea their stolen email addresses and associated passwords were for sale, according to the affidavit.

Servadei's defense counsel declined to comment.

Millions of passwords for $70

In 2023, an FBI employee in Buffalo acting undercover created a Cracked account to view some of its listings for free and then purchased a membership for about $70 to access most of the website's content, including its listings for cybercrime tools.

After purchasing the membership, the undercover FBI employee was given the option to connect a cryptocurrency wallet using a Sellix link.

The FBI's first purchase, for $4, allowed it to search for compromised credentials upon entering a username or email address. Search results allowed Cracked customers to gain unauthorized access to other users' accounts on a variety of sites, according to the criminal complaint.

What happened to one victim in Western New York illustrated the danger posed by Cracked, according to the Department of Justice.

A person who bought access to the compromised credentials entered a woman's username into the tool and obtained her sign-on and password for an online account. That allowed the cyberstalker to send sexually demeaning and threatening messages to her, according to the department.

The undercover FBI employee also purchased from another vendor 5.7 million compromised credentials, including telephone numbers and passwords, for $220 worth of cryptocurrency. The FBI interviewed six victims in Western New York who confirmed that the information the FBI purchased included their valid phone numbers and passwords.

The FBI then purchased 12 million compromised credentials, including stolen email addresses and passwords, from another vendor on Cracked for about $70 worth of cryptocurrency. A review of compromised credentials revealed over 20,000 email addresses associated with users in the 716 or 585 area codes. The FBI identified 136 local victims by entering "buffalo" and "sabres" and "allen" as passwords, according to the criminal complaint.

All of the FBI's purchases on Cracked were made with Bitcoin, a type of cryptocurrency. The three undercover purchases all went to the same cryptocurrency address, and the address then sent the funds to a deposit address, hosted by a cryptocurrency exchange. Records obtained by law enforcement from the currency exchange showed the wallet was registered to Sellix in Bologna, Italy, whose sole director was Servadei. And it included his email address. The exchange's records also included a screenshot of Servadei's passport.

The currency exchange's records also contained a document that described how Sellix kept 10% of each transaction processed through its platform and forwarded the remaining 90% to Cracked.

Google records show that in 2020 Servadei's email accounts received numerous notices that Sellix was selling stolen credentials, illegally obtained gift cards, malware and other illegal products, according to the FBI agent's affidavit.

Federal investigators also reviewed records from Discord, a communication app, which included messages between Servadei and a former Sellix employee.

The two discussed preparing a presentation to PayPal to pitch a partnership with Sellix.

"Yeah but the point [is] misleading PayPal into thinking we don't have illegal shops," Servadei said in one message.

In another Discord message, after a former employee suggested to Servadei that Sellix could use generic product names on listings selling illegal products, Servadei responded "wait that's so cool."

'So many things have happened'

Servadei was arrested on Nov. 29 in Atlanta, after arriving on a flight he took for business purposes. Authorities were waiting for him.

The U.S. Marshals Service transferred him to Buffalo, where FBI agents investigated him and others involved in the online market in stolen passwords.

His press attention has been favorable until now. Online sites interviewed him about leadership, entrepreneurism and cryptocurrency.

"It wasn't anything serious, I was just a kid having fun," he told Startups Magazine in 2023 about how he taught himself coding. "But I did learn how to apply complex Python scripts to my math homework! If you'd told me back then that in less than a decade, I'd be the young CEO of a million-dollar e-commerce startup, I'd have laughed in your face."

Juggling his responsibilities as a college student and an executive wasn't easy, he told the magazine.

"It presents both logistical and emotional challenges," he said. "Have you ever had to skip a school day to attend a regulatory attorney meeting? I can count quite a few in my short time."

It wasn't easy explaining his absences to his professors, he said.

"But then again, the best things in life can sound crazy the first time you say them out loud," he added. "Maybe they should read this piece, and then they'll understand why I've missed so many classes - it's all worth it, I promise," he told the magazine.

Earlier this year, BeBeez, an Italian newswire, called Servadei a "superstar entrepreneur," saying the launch of his global company reflected "his determination to empower businesses and revolutionize e-commerce."

In a Cointelegraph Magazine interview, he described the struggles of launching his business.

"When I created Sellix, I was 18 and still going through high school," he told the magazine. "The amount of issues involved with building a company is insane. Anywhere from getting a bank account - there was one month where we were almost out of business because banks in Italy are, shall we say, not great.

"I've had calls with lawyers while I was in school pretty much in the bathrooms," he added. "So many things have happened, and also because this was the first company I've built, there have been so many new things for me. Basically everything I do is new. So I'm learning through the issues that we have. Building a company is 1,000 times more difficult than working with cryptocurrency. Trying to balance my life, my company, going to school at the time - it has not been easy."

The article included a photo of Servadei speaking at the Plug & Play Italy Summit in 2023, where he spoke to a crowd of venture capitalists about how cryptocurrency is reshaping the payments industry.

"Tech and computer science have always been in my line of interest, ever since I was 13 years old," he told the Medium website in 2023. "I believe my passion is the reason I was able to create such great products."

For an article on how to be a highly effective executive, he said: "My passion, resilience and emotional intelligence helped me get where I am today."

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