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BTC The five kidnappers of two French cryptocurrency millionaires have been convicted by the Inner City Criminal Court of London. The victim was imprisoned in an apartment in east London for more than two days. Violent attacks on cryptocurrency holders have recently increased globally. In this case, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of $150,000.
How can cryptocurrency millionaires become targets of wrench attacks? Prosecutor Heidi Stoncliffe said the victim may have attracted the attention of criminals because of her openly flaunted luxurious lifestyle. Two French cryptocurrency millionaires in their 20s were living in Kensington before being kidnapped and held for ransom.
According to reports, as soon as the two men parked their rented black Mercedes-Benz in Shadwell, three men wearing masks, holding guns and knives forced them back into the car and took them to an apartment building in Canning Town called "Rathbone East". The men were tied up with tape and tie straps, beaten, and stuffed with socks in their mouths. During the 52 hours of captivity, boiling water was poured on them, and a cigarette was put out in one's mouth. Both were threatened with genital mutilation unless they paid $150,000. They also suffered from hunger, with one victim claiming he was forced to drink toilet water.
The kidnappers eventually received US$30,000 in cryptocurrency and released one of the victims. Another victim, who was taken away in another car, said in an audio interview that he believed he had been "resold" to a second gang who would try to squeeze more money.
The Scotland Yard flight team tracked the gang's location through a mobile phone left in the Mercedes Benz by the victim's friend and found the place of detention. Police chased a car carrying the three defendants-Julius George, Isaac Bakoya and Adel Sinin-down a residential street at speeds of up to 70 mph until the car hit a lamppost, and then captured the three on foot.
The jury found two defendants guilty of conspiracy to extort and illegal detention, and the other three defendants guilty of illegal detention. However, one of the men who allegedly directed the operation through WhatsApp and Snapchat-Ibrahim Mohammed, nicknamed "Nino" and stored as "Fat Boy" on one defendant's mobile phone-remains at large. One of the convicted men, Yasser Mohammed, had driven a victim to the apartment and had a previous history of drug dealing and knife possession.
Have wrench attacks become common?
According to blockchain security company CertiK, a total of 34 confirmed wrench attacks occurred in the first four months of 2026, a 41% increase over the same period in 2025. France alone has recorded about 70 incidents of cryptocurrency-related kidnapping or attempted extortion since January 2026, and 88 people have been prosecuted. Many of these cases are related to data breaches by cryptocurrency tax platform Waltio, which exposed information about 50,000 users.
In May, four men were sentenced to up to six and a half years in prison by St Albans Crown Court for beating a City employee with a wrench in Hertfordshire and stealing more than £ 10,000 from his account. A Morocco court has sentenced Mohammed Hamid Baju to 25 years in prison for plotting a series of kidnappings in France, including the January 2025 kidnapping of Ledger co-founder David Balang, whose attackers cut off one of his fingers. In New York, prosecutors charged two men, William Duplessi and John Voltz, with allegedly torturing an Italian tourist for three weeks to coerce him for his Bitcoin password.
