A group of seven British men have been jailed for a combined 76 years after kidnapping and brutalizing a man in an attempt to acquire hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of crypto assets.
The local police reported that the victim, who was not identified, had been kidnapped in Irlam (Greater Manchester) in December. After being forced into a vehicle, he was driven with a heavy bag on his head to an adjacent property.
Men tied the victim to a mattress and used a weapon on him, leaving bruises and burn marks. Later, police recovered a functioning firearm, three cartridges of ammunition, an imitative firearm, an Air pistol, knives and meat cleavers as well as a metal bat, a machete and a hammer.
The police received an anonymous call reporting concerns for welfare at the property, and upon arriving at the scene, saw a man running away from the address—later identified as Karl Johnson.
According to reports, the group had visited their victim multiple times throughout 2023, threatening him to transfer his crypto portfolio worth an estimated hundreds of thousands dollars to them.
In January 2023 the wave of assaults began. Over five incidents, the victim was locked inside a cabinet, drank morphine and assaulted by machetes, knives and threats to die. The victim had already paid the criminals over $124,250 (£100,000) in the run-up to the ultimate incident.
The forensic examination of ammunition and a gun that the police had seized at the scene of the last kidnapping revealed a person named Jonathan Newns. He spent 20 years behind bars for attempted robbery on two counts, false imprisonment on two counts, kidnapping as well as possession of prohibited firearm.
David Povey was sentenced to 20 years in prison for kidnapping and robbery. Five other men were sentenced to between 2 and 14 years in prison for their involvement.
There was no mention in the police report of how the criminals learned about the crypto-ownership by the victim.
Criminals have targeted and violently invaded the homes of large cryptocurrency holders both in and out of Britain.
The group was trying to force a Scottish resident to give up his crypto assets. In March of 2020, they threatened the man with a Machete inside his house in Blantyre.
In June 2024 the FBI disclosed how an organized group based in Florida used advanced methods, including unauthorized email access and physical surveillance, to target and identify their victims of home invasion.
Stephen Graves edited the book.
