Five men have been convicted by Inner London Crown Court for kidnapping two French cryptocurrency millionaires and holding them for more than two days in an East London flat. Authorities reported that the victims were subjected to violence and extortion, with their captors demanding a $150,000 ransom.
Kidnapping and torture targeting crypto holders
The victims, both in their twenties, were staying in Kensington when the abduction took place. Prosecuting barrister Heidi Stonecliffe KC stated that their luxurious public image may have drawn the attention of criminals looking for wealthy targets among cryptocurrency investors.
After parking their rented black Mercedes in Shadwell, the two men were confronted by three masked individuals armed with a gun and a knife. The attackers forced them back into the vehicle and drove them to a flat at Rathbone East in Canning Town, where their ordeal began.
The men were tied up with tape and cable ties, assaulted, and gagged with socks. During 52 hours in captivity, their captors poured boiling water over their bodies, extinguished a cigarette in one victim’s mouth, and repeatedly threatened to mutilate them unless they paid $150,000. The victims also reported being deprived of food, with one forced to drink toilet water.
Eventually, the kidnappers received $30,000 in cryptocurrency. One victim was released, while the second was taken away separately and later claimed he believed he had been “sold” to another group seeking further ransom.
The Metropolitan Police’s Flying Squad managed to track the gang down using a phone accidentally left in the Mercedes by a friend of the victims, leading officers to the crime scene.
A police pursuit through residential streets reached speeds of up to 70mph before three of the suspects, Julius George, Isaac Bakoya, and Adel Sineen, crashed their vehicle and were detained after attempting to flee on foot. The suspects were found guilty of conspiracy to blackmail and false imprisonment, while three others were convicted of false imprisonment.
The investigation found evidence of intense physical and psychological abuse against the two cryptocurrency holders, including threats of extreme violence and coerced payments to secure their release.
The reported ringleader, known as Ibrahim Mohamed or “Nino,” allegedly directed the operation through WhatsApp and Snapchat, but remains at large. Another convicted member, Yasir Mohamed, had prior convictions for drug offenses and knife possession.
Rising trend in wrench attacks on cryptocurrency investors
Blockchain security company CertiK documented 34 confirmed wrench attacks—incidents where criminals physically coerce victims to surrender cryptocurrency—in the first four months of 2026. This marks a 41% increase over the same period in 2025. In France, authorities have recorded approximately 70 cases of crypto-related kidnapping or extortion attempts since January 2026, resulting in charges against 88 individuals.
Several attacks in France have been connected to a breach at the crypto tax platform Waltio, which reportedly exposed the personal data of around 50,000 users.
Mini dictionary: Waltio is a French crypto tax platform that provides tools for cryptocurrency users to calculate and declare their tax obligations. The company suffered a data breach in early 2026, exposing sensitive information of thousands of clients.
In another high-profile case, four men received sentences of up to six and a half years at St Albans Crown Court for clubbing a City worker in Hertfordshire with a wrench and transferring over £10,000 from his accounts. Meanwhile, a Moroccan court sentenced Mohamed Hamid Bajou to 25 years in prison for orchestrating a string of abductions in France, including the 2025 kidnapping of Ledger co-founder David Balland, during which one of his fingers was severed.
Prosecutors in New York are pursuing two men, William Duplessie and John Woeltz, who are accused of torturing an Italian tourist for three weeks in an attempt to obtain his Bitcoin password.
A series of violent incidents across Europe and the United States has prompted renewed concern about physical attacks targeting cryptocurrency investors who are often perceived as high-value targets due to their digital holdings.
