DANBURY, Conn. — A Connecticut teen is believed to have taken part in one of largest heists of cryptocurrency the country has ever seen.
The story dates back to August when a husband and wife were taken hostage while house hunting in Danbury.
A total of $243 million, or 4,100 bitcoin, is a hard number to wrap your head around, but that’s how much the Federal Bureau of Investigation says was stolen, and police say a Danbury teen was likely involved.
“The way this case has spiraled out into other parts of the country. It’s pretty shocking to see how far these tentacles have spread,” remarked Det. Sgt. Steven Castrovinci, of the Danbury Police Department.
On Aug. 25, Danbury police arrested six Florida men. They are accused of assaulting and kidnapping a husband and wife as they were house hunting in a gated community while driving a now impounded quarter of a million-dollar Lamborghini Urus.
“They ripped the two victims from the vehicle. At that time, they decided to beat and hit the male with a bat. [They] were dragged into the van where they were bound and gagged and duct taped,” explained Castrovinci.
Initially, there was no clear motive. Now, investigators say the couple was targeted.
“Basically, they were probably going to be ransomed for crypto currency,” said Castrovinci. “For a lot of cryptocurrency that their son was involved in.”
FOX61 won’t reveal the name of their son because he hasn’t yet been charged, but in screen grabs of a Discord chat room he allegedly goes by various aliases, including ‘Swag’ and ‘Wiz.’
“I do know there are other co-conspirators,” said Castrovinci.
The Danbury teen and other co-conspirators swindled nearly a quarter of a billion dollars from one person in Washington D.C.
According to a federal indictment, the suspects are all part of a coast-to-coast crypto crime chat community. They use Virtual Private Networks, or VPN’s, to mask their online footprints.
They divided up the proceeds of the heist and spent it on international travel, nightclubs, luxury cars, watches, jewelry, designer handbags and rental homes.
“It is an awful lot of money and it is an active investigation by the FBI,” said Castrovinci.
Danbury police say while its primary involvement has been handling the carjacking and kidnapping case, investigators are working closely with other federal and municipal agencies.
“We’ve pretty much been working on this non-stop, myself and two other detectives,” said Castrovinci. “It’s taken up a lot of resources, a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of interviews."
So far, two people have been charged in the cryptocurrency heist, including a young man from Miami and one from Los Angeles.
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Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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