Federal charges filed against trio accused of violent cryptocurrency theft campaign
Federal prosecutors allege three suspects disguised themselves as package delivery workers to break into residences and coerce victims into surrendering at least $6.5 million in cryptocurrency.
Federal authorities in the United States have made public an indictment charging three individuals with allegedly perpetrating a series of violent robberies that resulted in the theft of no less than $6.5 million in cryptocurrency from digital asset holders.
According to a Monday statement released by the Justice Department, a federal grand jury has brought charges against three suspects for allegedly orchestrating a scheme to abduct and rob four individuals in the San Francisco and Los Angeles metropolitan areas to obtain their cryptocurrency holdings.
The three defendants—Elijah Armstrong, Nino Chindavanh and Jayden Rucker—allegedly disguised themselves as package delivery personnel to gain entry into victims' homes and employed threats of physical harm to obtain cryptocurrency seed phrases from their targets.
These types of incidents, known as wrench attacks in which cryptocurrency holders face physical coercion, have seen a global uptick since 2025. In April, French law enforcement officials brought charges against 88 individuals for conducting similar attacks on cryptocurrency holders within France.
According to federal prosecutors, investigators have confirmed at least four individuals who were targeted by the three suspects between Nov. 22 and Dec. 31. According to an indictment unsealed in a federal courthouse in San Francisco, one victim was allegedly coerced into transferring $6.5 million worth of cryptocurrency into a digital wallet under the control of the three defendants.
"These individuals, as alleged, terrorized their victims in the hopes of stealing vast sums of cryptocurrency. The scheme was not only sophisticated, it was brazen, violent, and dangerous."
Craig Missakian, US Attorney for the Northern District of California
Law enforcement took the three suspects into custody in December last year, and they now face multiple criminal counts including conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, attempted robbery, and attempted kidnapping.
Armstrong and Rucker have court appearances scheduled for Tuesday. Chindavanh is slated to make a court appearance on June 26.
According to a report published in May of last year by blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs, wrench attacks targeting cryptocurrency holders have become increasingly prevalent due to multiple factors: the simplicity with which malicious actors can obtain personal information through online sources, the mistaken belief that cryptocurrency transactions provide anonymity, and the public nature of wealth displays within the cryptocurrency industry.