TL;DR:
- Federal authorities charged three Tennessee males with stealing tens of millions in cryptocurrencies by violent assaults carried out throughout California.
- The defendants posed as supply employees to achieve entry to houses and compelled victims at gunpoint to switch crypto property.
- In a single incident, a sufferer in San Francisco was pressured to switch $13 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum after being overwhelmed and restrained.
The USA Division of Justice filed federal prices in opposition to Elijah Armstrong, Nino Chindavanh, and Jayden Rucker, three males from Tennessee, accused of conspiracy to commit robbery and kidnapping as a part of a cryptocurrency theft scheme that focused a number of cities throughout California.
Federal prosecutors allege that the trio traveled from Tennessee to San Francisco, San José, Sunnyvale, and Los Angeles to hold out a sequence of bodily assaults in opposition to high-net-worth crypto asset holders.
Based on the official Division of Justice assertion, the defendants disguised themselves as supply employees to achieve entry into their victims’ houses. As soon as inside, they used firearms, duct tape, and zip ties to restrain them and pressure them to hand over their digital pockets credentials.
In an incident that happened in November in San Francisco’s Mission Dolores neighborhood, a sufferer who was anticipating a bundle was pistol-whipped and threatened till pressured to switch $10 million in Bitcoin and $3 million in Ethereum. One other case documented by prosecutors concerned the theft of $6.5 million in cryptocurrencies at gunpoint.
Convictions and Context of a Rising Risk in the Crypto World
Armstrong and Rucker had been arrested in Los Angeles on December 31, 2025, whereas Chindavanh was taken into custody in Sunnyvale on December 22 of the identical yr. The costs carry most penalties starting from 20 years in jail for theft and tried kidnapping to life imprisonment for conspiracy to commit kidnapping, in addition to fines of $250,000 per conspiracy rely.
Federal prosecutor Craig H. Missakian described the scheme as “subtle, brazen, violent, and harmful.” FBI Appearing Particular Agent Matt Cobo characterised the operation as a “calculated plan” and underscored the company’s dedication to pursuing the sort of organized legal exercise.
The trade refers to this pattern as “wrench assaults,” bodily assaults focusing on crypto traders. Based on knowledge from cybersecurity agency CertiK, 2025 noticed 72 verified incidents worldwide, a 75% improve in comparison with the earlier yr. France, for its half, charged 88 people in reference to a sequence of kidnappings that included the kidnapping and mutilation of Ledger co-founder David Balland.
