Three Tennessee men posing as delivery drivers allegedly forced a California crypto millionare to open his cryptocurrency account at gunpoint, then transferred $6.5 million into one of their own accounts, prosecutors said this week.
The three men have now been indicted in federal court on multiple robbery and kidnapping counts. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California said they had engaged in a violent robbery spree in the Bay Area and Los Angeles targeting multiple victims. Elijah Armstrong, 21, Nino Chindavanh, 21, and Jayden Rucker, 25, each face up to life in prison if convicted.
“These individuals, as alleged, terrorized their victims in the hopes of stealing vast sums of cryptocurrency,” U.S. Atty. Craig H. Missakian said in a statement Monday. “The scheme was not only sophisticated, it was brazen, violent, and dangerous.”
The three men allegedly conspired to kidnap and rob people of their cryptocurrency in San Francisco, San Jose, Sunnyvale, and Los Angeles, the office said. They allegedly used zip ties and duct tape to restrain at least one victim and force him to sign into his crypto account. After gaining access, the defendants allegedly transferred the money in the victim’s account to one of the defendant’s crypto wallets, the prosecutor’s office said.
Armstrong, Chindavanh and Rucker were arrested in December and remain in federal custody. They face charges of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, attempted Hobbs Act robbery, and attempted kidnapping. The Hobbs Act prohibitsrobbery that interferes with interstate or foreign commerce.
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