Three Tennessee men indicted in $6.5M crypto kidnapping ring

A U.S. federal grand jury has indicted three Tennessee men on charges that they carried out a $6.5 million alleged crypto kidnapping and robbery spree targeting victims in San Francisco, San Jose, Sunnyvale and Los Angeles. The indictment names Elijah Armstrong, Nino Chindavanh and Jayden Rucker and alleges they used delivery-worker disguises to gain entry to victims’ homes.

According to the Justice Department, the group posed as delivery personnel, entered residences and then assaulted occupants with firearms. The indictment alleges victims were restrained with duct tape and zip ties and forced to hand over cash and access to digital asset accounts. In one incident, prosecutors say conspirators compelled a victim to provide account access and transferred roughly $6.5 million in cryptocurrency to a wallet they controlled.

The defendants face federal counts including conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, along with related counts of attempted kidnapping in some instances. Chindavanh first appeared in federal court in San Francisco last month; Armstrong and Rucker made their initial appearances on Monday, the Justice Department reported.

If convicted, each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of conspiracy to commit robbery and attempted kidnapping. For each conspiracy to commit kidnapping count, the indictment carries a potential maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine, prosecutors state.

U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian described the alleged scheme as ‘sophisticated' and ‘brazen,' saying the defendants, as alleged, terrorized victims in hopes of stealing large sums of cryptocurrency.

Prosecutors say the conspirators sought passwords, seed phrases or other account controls to enable transfers to wallets they controlled. Federal authorities linked the alleged pattern of robberies to multiple California cities and allege the group targeted victims specifically to extract both cash and access to online crypto accounts.

Federal filings note broader trends in digital asset crime: the FBI reported $11.3 billion in fraud losses involving digital assets last year, more than half of the $20.9 billion in total internet crime losses tracked by the agency. Prosecutors referenced a recent separate case in which a defendant received a 78-month sentence for participating in a nationwide social engineering conspiracy that resulted in the theft of more than $250 million in cryptocurrency.

The defendants remain presumed innocent until proven guilty at trial. Federal prosecutors did not disclose whether any of the allegedly stolen cryptocurrency has been recovered or provide a schedule for upcoming proceedings.