TL;DR:
- Federal authorities charged three Tennessee men with stealing millions in cryptocurrencies through violent attacks carried out across California.
- The defendants posed as delivery workers to gain access to homes and forced victims at gunpoint to transfer crypto assets.
- In one incident, a victim in San Francisco was forced to transfer $13 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum after being beaten and restrained.
The United States Department of Justice filed federal charges against Elijah Armstrong, Nino Chindavanh, and Jayden Rucker, three men from Tennessee, accused of conspiracy to commit robbery and kidnapping as part of a cryptocurrency theft scheme that targeted multiple cities across California.
Federal prosecutors allege that the trio traveled from Tennessee to San Francisco, San José, Sunnyvale, and Los Angeles to carry out a series of physical attacks against high-net-worth crypto asset holders.
According to the official Department of Justice statement, the defendants disguised themselves as delivery workers to gain entry into their victims’ homes. Once inside, they used firearms, duct tape, and zip ties to restrain them and force them to hand over their digital wallet credentials.
In an incident that took place in November in San Francisco’s Mission Dolores neighborhood, a victim who was expecting a package was pistol-whipped and threatened until forced to transfer $10 million in Bitcoin and $3 million in Ethereum. Another case documented by prosecutors involved the theft of $6.5 million in cryptocurrencies at gunpoint.
Convictions and Context of a Growing Threat in the Crypto World
Armstrong and Rucker were arrested in Los Angeles on December 31, 2025, while Chindavanh was taken into custody in Sunnyvale on December 22 of the same year. The charges carry maximum penalties ranging from 20 years in prison for robbery and attempted kidnapping to life imprisonment for conspiracy to commit kidnapping, as well as fines of $250,000 per conspiracy count.
Federal prosecutor Craig H. Missakian described the scheme as “sophisticated, brazen, violent, and dangerous.” FBI Acting Special Agent Matt Cobo characterized the operation as a “calculated plan” and underscored the agency’s commitment to pursuing this type of organized criminal activity.
The industry refers to this trend as “wrench attacks,” physical attacks targeting crypto investors. According to data from cybersecurity firm CertiK, 2025 saw 72 verified incidents worldwide, a 75% increase compared to the previous year. France, for its part, charged 88 individuals in connection with a series of kidnappings that included the abduction and mutilation of Ledger co-founder David Balland.
