A case involving the theft of a huge amount of Bitcoin in the United States has underlined how the criminal element continues to target the crypto sector.
The Associated Press reported that a Connecticut man has pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges, after he and two others took part in a $245 million (£181m) Bitcoin theft.
Theft of huge sums of digital currencies have been ongoing for years now, often involving state-backed hackers.
Wrench attacks
But hardened criminals have also become increasingly physical against crypto holders, and earlier this month a second suspect was arrested and accused of torturing a man to steal gain access to his cryptocurrency in a so called “wrench attack.”
That came after a 28-year old Italian man and crypto investor, was allegedly kidnapped and tortured for weeks inside an upscale Manhattan townhouse by captors seeking his bitcoin password.
According to authorities, for weeks the victim had been beaten, shocked, and led to believe that his family was in danger if he didn’t give up his bitcoin password.
At one point the attackers even allegedly carried the victim to the top of a flight of stairs where they dangled him over a ledge and threatened to kill him if he didn’t share his bitcoin password.
Kidnapped parents
The physical risk to crypto holders was underlined this week when the Associated Press reported on a Connecticut man, Veer Chetal, aged 19, who pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges and agreed to testify against his co-defendants
According to AP, Chetal, was one of three men charged with stealing 4,100 Bitcoins from a victim in Washington DC, in an elaborate online scam last August.
The trio reportedly lived the high life after the heist, spending millions of dollars on cars, jewellery, rental mansions and nightclub parties, prosecutors say.
However a week after the theft, Chetal’s parents were assaulted and kidnapped briefly in Danbury, Connecticut, in a failed ransom plot aimed at Chetal, who the attackers believed had a large amount of cryptocurrency, authorities said. The parents were assaulted but were freed soon after.
According to AP, Chetal’s criminal case was unsealed on Monday in federal court in Washington, revealing his guilty pleas in November and his agreement to co-operate with federal authorities investigating the Bitcoin theft.
It also revealed new allegations that he was involved in about 50 similar thefts that raked in another $3 million between November 2023 and September 2024.
Another man charged in the Bitcoin theft, Malone Lam, was also among 13 people indicted by a federal grand jury in May in an alleged online racketeering conspiracy involving cryptocurrency thefts across the US and overseas that netted more than $260 million, including the $245 million Bitcoin theft.
Chetal is facing 19 to 24 years in prison, a fine between $50,000 and $500,000 and restitution to the victim that has yet to be determined, according federal sentencing guidelines and his plea agreement, the Associated Press reported.