Updated 28 October 2026: rewritten, expanded and fact-checked against the sources listed in the article.
Saif Faiq, a 22-year-old from St. Louis, Missouri, pleaded guilty on Monday, 8 June 2026, in federal court in Hartford, Connecticut, for his part in a 2024 plot to rob bitcoin. The plot ended with a couple being kidnapped in Danbury. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut, Faiq pleaded guilty to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, a Hobbs Act offense that carries a maximum of 20 years in prison. Sentencing was set for 28 August 2026.
The victims were the parents of a teenager who had taken part in one of the largest individual crypto thefts on record. The plan was to force the family to hand over part of that stolen bitcoin.
What the Justice Department says happened
On 25 August 2024, Danbury police arrested six men from Florida after a daytime carjacking of a Lamborghini Urus. The two people inside were kidnapped. Prosecutors say the victims are the parents of a person who “participated in the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin”. Faiq and others planned the attempted robbery, which turned into the kidnapping, to get part of that bitcoin.
According to the DOJ’s account of the case:
- Faiq recruited people for the crime, travelled to Connecticut for the planned home invasion and kidnapping, and helped watch the victims.
- His brother, Adam Iza, talked to some of the kidnappers by phone and encrypted messaging apps, told them how to carry out the plan and gave them money.
- Another alleged co-conspirator, who had argued with the victims’ son at a Miami nightclub in July 2024, also helped pay for the trip and arranged travel and lodging.
- Faiq has been held since his arrest on 12 November 2025. Iza pleaded guilty to the same charge one week before him, on 1 June 2026, and all six men who carried out the carjacking and kidnapping have also pleaded guilty.
Security journalist Brian Krebs described the attack in October 2024. The couple, both in their 50s, were rear-ended and assaulted, then forced into a van. Police chased the van until it crashed and found the couple bound with duct tape.
The theft behind the kidnapping
The family was targeted because of a theft one week earlier. A federal indictment unsealed in Washington, D.C. on 19 September 2024 says that on 18 August 2024, Malone Lam, Jeandiel Serrano and others got a victim in D.C. to give up access to more than 4,100 bitcoin, worth over $230 million at the time. Their method was social engineering. Krebs, citing blockchain investigator ZachXBT, reported the haul at about $243 million. He said the callers pretended to be Google and Gemini support staff, then got the victim to install remote-desktop software that exposed his private keys. The Block reported that the victim was an early bitcoin investor and a creditor of the failed crypto lender Genesis.
Veer Chetal, the kidnapped couple’s son, was 19 and from Danbury when he was charged. NBC Connecticut reported on 23 June 2025 that his guilty plea to fraud and money-laundering conspiracy charges had been unsealed. He pleaded in November and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. NBC reported that he faces 19 to 24 years in prison and that he turned over about $39 million in cryptocurrency. Lam’s case grew to 18 defendants, and Lam is covered separately in our report on Malone Lam’s guilty plea in the $245 million theft conspiracy.
Correcting the market numbers
An earlier version of this article said bitcoin was trading “around $30,000” with a market value of about $580 billion. Both figures were wrong for June 2026. Yahoo Finance daily closing data show bitcoin at $63,090.59 on 8 June 2026, the day of the plea, and $61,643.78 on 9 June. About 20 million BTC were in circulation at the time, so the market value was roughly $1.2 trillion. That is about twice the figure we gave before.
The case itself had no visible effect on prices. It matters for a different reason: it shows a risk that bitcoin’s price can’t measure, which is the physical danger to people known to hold large amounts of crypto.
The rise of “wrench attacks”
Using violence or threats to make someone hand over crypto is usually called a “wrench attack”. Bitcoin developer Jameson Lopp keeps a public list of known physical attacks on crypto holders, and the Danbury kidnapping is on it. When we checked on 28 October 2026, the list had 104 incidents for 2024 and 167 for 2025, the most of any year. It already had 132 for 2026, with the latest dated 6 October. Lopp’s list only includes cases that were reported publicly, so the real number is probably higher.
In its 2025 mid-year crime update (17 July 2025), blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis used Lopp’s data. It said 2025 was on track for about twice as many physical attacks as the previous record year, and that attacks tended to follow bitcoin’s price. Chainalysis suggested holders avoid showing off their wealth in public or on social media. The Danbury case fits that pattern. Several people involved in the theft spent money openly in nightclubs and on luxury cars, and the DOJ ties the plot to a nightclub argument with the victims’ son.
What happened next
- 9 September 2026: U.S. District Judge Sarala V. Nagala sentenced Adam Iza, 26, to 180 months (15 years) in prison and three years of supervised release. The DOJ said Faiq was still awaiting sentencing at that point, so his 28 August date had not gone ahead as planned.
- 26 October 2026: Martel Williams, 27, of St. Louis, pleaded guilty to the same Hobbs Act conspiracy charge. Prosecutors say the organisers first recruited Williams and two others from St. Louis. Between about 21 and 24 August 2024 they watched the son and his parents, planning to break into the home. They left Connecticut before the Florida crew arrived. Williams is free until sentencing, and no date has been set.
Update, 28 October 2026
Bitcoin closed at $81,261.60 on 28 October 2026 (Yahoo Finance daily closing data), about 32% above its level on 9 June. No public DOJ notice of a sentence for Faiq had appeared by this date. Chetal also remained unsentenced, based on the most recent reports we could check. For more background on custody and exchange risks, see our crypto guides hub.
Sources
- DOJ, District of Connecticut: Missouri Man Admits Role in Cryptocurrency Robbery Scheme (Saif Faiq), 8 June 2026
- DOJ, District of Connecticut: Adam Iza sentenced to 15 years, 9 September 2026
- DOJ, District of Connecticut: Martel Williams guilty plea, 27 October 2026
- DOJ, District of Columbia: Indictment Charges Two in $230 Million Cryptocurrency Scam, 19 September 2024
- The Block: kidnapping co-conspirator pleads guilty, 8 June 2026
- Krebs on Security: Lamborghini Carjackers Lured by $243M Cyberheist, 9 October 2024
- NBC Connecticut: Veer Chetal guilty plea unsealed, 23 June 2025
- Jameson Lopp: Physical Bitcoin Attacks list (accessed 28 October 2026)
- Chainalysis: 2025 Crypto Crime Mid-year Update, 17 July 2025
- Yahoo Finance daily closing data, BTC-USD (retrieved 28 October 2026)
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How this article was made: first published on 9 June 2026 as an AI-assisted rewrite of a news report (original report by The Block: TradingView News). On 28 October 2026 it was rewritten and expanded with AI assistance, and its facts and figures were checked against the primary sources linked above. How we work · Report an error
