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Six men kidnapped a family of three and a nanny at gunpoint in Chicago before whisking them away for five days, demanding they cough up $15 million in cryptocurrencies.
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Six men have reportedly been charged over allegedly kidnapping a family of three and a nanny in Chicago before forcing them to transfer $15 million worth of cryptocurrencies.
According to a Feb. 12 report from the Chicago Tribune, which cited a recently unsealed FBI affidavit, the kidnappers knocked on the family’s townhouse door, pretending that they accidentally damaged their garage door, and then forced their way inside with guns.
The kidnappers allegedly forced the family into a van before taking them to an Airbnb about an hour away for one night and then to another house the next day.
The kidnappers allegedly demanded ransom payments in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and other cryptocurrencies, threatening to kill them otherwise, the victims claimed.
The victims were allegedly held for a total of five days, during which one of the victims was able to call his father on the Chinese messaging app WeChat that they had been kidnapped.
The victims said they were released on Nov. 1 and walked to a nearby dry cleaner before calling an Uber to a local hospital.
While $15 million worth of cryptocurrencies were claimed to have been transferred — US officials have only accounted for $6 million worth thus far.
Six men charged
The six suspects were charged on Dec. 13. Only one of them, 34-year-old Zehuan Wei, was arrested as he attempted to re-enter the US from Mexico on Jan. 17.
The other five men include Fan Zhang, Huajing Yan, Shengnan Jiang, Shiqiang Lian and Ye Cao, some of whom are believed to have fled to China after Wei’s arrest.
Source: Jason Meisner
Before pressing charges, US officials collected evidence, including accessing surveillance footage from the Airbnb and examining cryptocurrency wallets and the contents from inside the white Ford van.
Related: Crypto broker breaks ankles while fleeing kidnappers in Spain
DNA swabs were also taken from a white Chrysler Pacifica vehicle that Wei rented on Oct. 29.
US officials compared the footage to Cao’s picture taken by US Customs and Border Protection, while others had their state-issued driver’s licenses compared.
At least two of the victims were able to identify some of the alleged kidnappers in a photo array.
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This article first appeared at Cointelegraph.com News
