Three Missouri men who attempted to steal Bitcoin via a home invasion in 2024 have been charged by authorities. According to federal prosecutors, the men plotted to break into a Connecticut home and force the occupant to turn over stolen Bitcoin. The latest defendants are involved in a kidnapping case linked to a crypto theft worth ~$245 million.
Sedric Louis, John Davis, and Martel Williams each face one count of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, a charge under the Hobbs Act that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan for the District of Connecticut announced the charges Tuesday. All three pleaded not guilty. The men were brought in by the people coordinating an earlier kidnapping and told to raid a Connecticut home, threaten the person inside, and make him move stolen Bitcoin into wallets that the coordinators controlled, investigators say.
Authorities charge three over attempt to steal Bitcoin
According to prosecutors, the group drove to the state over four days in late August 2024, rented vehicles, picked up air rifles and walkie-talkies, and then spent two days watching the target and his parents. The three left, worried the home’s security cameras had recorded them and unable to contact their co-conspirators. Then a different crew from Florida came out to try and pull off the robbery instead.
As Cryptopolitan reported earlier, a resident of Washington, D.C., was scammed out of 4,100 Bitcoin, worth about $245 million, via a social-engineering scam perpetrated by Veer Chetal and two others who posed as support personnel for Google and a crypto-exchange. Chetal’s family was caught in the crossfire of a fight between Chetal and an alleged associate of Adam Iza at a Miami nightclub in mid-2024. Six men from Florida rammed Sushil and Radhika Chetal’s Lamborghini SUV near Danbury High School on August 25, 2024, blocked it with a van, and dragged the couple out.
Sushil Chetal was beaten with a baseball bat. According to court records, both parents were bound with duct tape, Cryptopolitan reports. Police in Danbury, aided by an off-duty FBI agent who happened to be in the area, chased the van until it crashed and arrested all six. Several people connected with the case have entered guilty pleas. Adam Iza, a 25-year-old businessman from California known as “The Godfather,” pleaded guilty in June to the same Hobbs Act conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced on August 12, reported Cryptopolitan.
The six Florida men involved in the kidnapping have also pleaded guilty, and two have already received sentences of 11 years. The three Missouri defendants were charged in a second superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in New Haven on May 22, 2026. Louis and Davis have been in custody since their arrests on June 25 and entered their pleas on July 30 in federal court in Bridgeport. Williams showed up on July 17 and was released on bond.
According to Cryptopolitan, blockchain security firm CertiK reported 34 verified “wrench attacks” in the first four months of the year, a term used to describe the use of physical force to gain access to Bitcoin, marking a 41% increase from the same period in 2025. Losses totaled about $101 million. CertiK predicts the number of attacks will hit ~130 by the end of the year.
