Missouri Man Pleads Guilty in Bitcoin Kidnap Scheme

A resident of St. Louis has confessed to involvement in a violent plan to steal bitcoin from a family in Connecticut. Martel Williams, 27, entered a guilty plea on Monday at federal court in Hartford, admitting to conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, which is interference with commerce by robbery.

The conviction carries a potential prison term of up to 20 years. U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan announced the guilty plea.

The conspiracy dates back to August 2024. According to prosecutors, the organizers aimed to obtain bitcoin owned by an individual who had been involved in a theft valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. To execute the plan, they enlisted Williams and two other men from St. Louis.

The group intended to break into the target's residence, threaten him, and force him to transfer cryptocurrency to accounts they controlled.

Williams and his co-conspirators travelled to Connecticut between August 21 and August 24, 2024. They rented vehicles and collected items such as air rifles, walkie-talkies, and a laptop computer. For two days, they monitored the target and his parents, looking for a chance to enter the house.

Cameras, frustration, and a failed bitcoin break-in

The intended break-in never happened. Williams and his group became concerned that they had been recorded by home security cameras. They also grew dissatisfied with the plan and with insufficient communication from the organizers. They left Connecticut without carrying out the operation.

Soon after, another team of six men from Florida arrived to attempt the same scheme. On August 25, 2024, Danbury police took those six into custody following a violent carjacking. The men assaulted and kidnapped two people inside the car — those victims were the target's parents.

Local media have connected the target to a bitcoin theft ranging between $230 million and $245 million, though the exact sum varies across reports. The federal case focuses on the attempted robbery rather than the original theft.

Federal agents arrested Williams on July 17, 2026. He is currently free while awaiting sentencing, with no date yet scheduled. The investigation was handled by the FBI New Haven Violent Crimes Task Force, FBI Los Angeles, FBI St. Louis, and the Danbury Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Karen L. Peck and Stephanie T. Levick prosecuted the case.

Other defendants in the Danbury matter have also pleaded guilty, according to local news sources.

Poetic bitcoin justice

Earlier this month, a fraudster who had stolen about 60 bitcoin (approximately $4.8 million) through a fake-review task scam lost the entire amount when thieves drained three Ledger addresses where the scammer had deposited the proceeds on October 9.

Blockchain analysts at Chainalysis reported that the transfers moved into a wallet that had been flagged as stolen. The wider Ledger incident, in which a criminal group allegedly implanted devices that read seed phrases, sold through Malaysian reseller CryptoBilis, may have siphoned about $86 million. Ledger said it is cooperating with law enforcement and confirmed that no other vendors were affected, following a July attack on Coldcard that cost users about $120 million due to a firmware bug.