Russian prosecutors from the Ivanovo area arraigned five men on charges related to a kidnapping to extract 10.4 BTC from a programmer. The defendants, mostly ex-convicts, face up to 15 years on these new charges.
Per the Kommersant local media outlet, the victim, who is in his early 20s, landed on the suspects’ radar after spotting photos of supercars, including a Ferrari, a BMW and a Mercedes, on social media. The victim also traveled outside the country with fair regularity.
Was the victim a crypto influencer?
Investigators said the programmer targeted in the 10.4 BTC crypto kidnapping in the Ivanovo area made his money as a product supplier for large companies.
The five men identified by News.ru as Antonov, Bronnikov, Chervyakov, Kozlov and Zaynutdinov reportedly maintained surveillance on the victim, mapping his movements before they struck. Their ages ranged from 28 to 52.
The accused quintuplet made their move on September 6, seizing and cuffing the programmer by the hands as he approached a shop. They drove him to a garage cooperative called Energetik, using a Peugeot they had bought from car thieves.
It was at the Energetik garage that the pistol-wielding, masked attackers beat the victim for about five hours. During that time, they made threats to burn him with an iron, a soldering iron and escalated as far as saying they would cut off his ears.
The perpetrators extracted 1 million rubles in cash from the programmer. They also collected an iPhone and a MacBook, and took over his accounts.
They transferred another 10.4 BTC (approximately $800,000) to an address that investigators have not identified as of this report.
The victim was dumped, still bound, in a forest at the end of an ordeal that Russian authorities estimate led to above 84 million rubles in total damage.
How the gang was arrested
Investigators cracked the case after the attackers switched to ordinary phone calls during a Ukrainian drone attack that took down internet service and forced the crew to abandon the messaging apps they were using.
Police intercepted their conversations and tracked all five men down.
Mobile internet outages have become common during drone attacks in Russia. Authorities say the shutdowns prevent raid drones from navigating using cellular networks.
Police arrested the suspects all across Russia, from Yaroslavl to Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg and Tver. Some of the loot has already gone to apartment and car expenses.
Investigators say all five had served prison terms for serious offenses and met behind bars. A court ordered three of them to be held until late December 2026. The charges fall under Russia’s kidnapping and aggravated robbery statutes.
Wrench attacks continue to spread
The case fits a documented rise in “wrench attacks,” where criminals use violence to force crypto holders to hand over keys. Chainalysis counted 46 such incidents worldwide in the first half of 2026, with more than $30 million taken and payment extracted in 12 of them. CertiK logged 52 verified attacks over the same window and about $124.1 million in exposure, with 39 of those incidents in Europe and 33 in France alone.
Cryptopolitan has tracked the pattern spreading to the UK and earlier reported a £10,000 reward in a Solihull home invasion .
The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them .
