On the evening of August 25, 2024, and between a warm summer atmosphere in the city of Danberry, Connecticut, the couple was Sushil and Radika Cheetal driving their luxury Lamborghini car in a high -end neighborhood, where they were looking for a new house. It was not in their minds that this quiet tour would turn into a real nightmare, where they were subjected to an attempt to kidnap an armed and mysterious, which was only part of a bigger and strange story related to huge theft of encrypted currencies, and described by the New York Times as “theft of the century”.
Suddenly, the Honda Civic collided with them from the back, then a white truck surrounded them, 6 masked men, wearing dark clothes, and rushed towards the luxury car. They withdrew the couple by force, assaulted them, and bound them with adhesive tape, threatening Sushil with a Pissal striker. Radika begged them, explaining that she suffers from asthma, but the aggressors did not seem any mercy, and forced them to enter the white truck.
This violent scene did not pass without the neighbors noticing, as there were those who witnessed the accident, including a retired federal agent who did not hesitate to track the truck of his car, and informed the police of the accident. An exciting chase began between the police and the truck, which ended with the truck deviating to the woods, where 4 of the attackers fled.
But the police did not give up, and they chased the fleeing, and they were able to arrest one of them under a nearby bridge, while the other three were found in a neighboring forest after hours of search. As for the couple, the police found them at the back of the truck, restricted and disturbed, in a dramatic scene that the quiet city was not accustomed to.
The police were confused, as there was no clear motivation for this violent crime in a quiet city like Danbury. The aggressors – who are between the ages of 18 and 26 – came from Miami, Florida, which raised questions about the reason they chose this city. And why did they leave a luxury Lamborghini car without stealing it? There was no evidence of a previous link between the perpetrators and the victims, which made the case more mysterious.
A greater case
A few days passed before the police received information from the FBI indicating a link between this kidnapping attempt and a huge theft of encrypted currencies a week ago. The threads of the case began to reveal, to reveal one of the largest electronic fraud in the history of digital currencies.
It was suspected that a group of young people – some of whom got to know others through the “Minecraft” game – stole nearly a quarter of a billion dollars from a victim who did not know what was happening, in a series of amazing events in which teenagers participated, independent digital investigators follow the activities of the hackers, and several law enforcement agencies, and now it seemed that the case has reached its peak in The kidnapping of the Chital family.
A few weeks ago, the series of events started when a resident of Washington – an early investor in encrypted currencies – began receiving repeated notifications with suspicious entry attempts to his account on Google.
It was not very interesting at the beginning, but he was surprised by a phone call from a person who claimed to be from the Cyber Security Team in Google, he told him that his accounts were subjected to an attempt to penetrate. Not only that, but rather received another call from a person who claimed that he was from the “Gemini” platform for digital currencies, informed him that his account on the platform – which contains approximately $ 4.5 million of digital currencies – had been hacked, and that he had to reset the bilateral verification and transfer bitcoin to a new portfolio to protect it.
The fraudsters persuaded him to download a program to enhance safety on his device, in fact it was a remote control tool, giving them full access to his device and digital accounts. In a few minutes, more than 4,100 units disappeared with a formation of its digital portfolio, its value on that day exceeded 243 million dollars. The victim realized that he was a victim of a complex fraud.
Although the owners of cryptocurrencies are often unidentified, all transactions are registered according to the so -called “Blockchain”, which is an undesirable digital record used to store data in a safe and transparent manner, and is a basis for most cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum, which allowed independent digital investigators that follow the movement of funds immediately after the theft occurred.
Among the most prominent of these investigators is a figure called “Zachbt”, and we will be satisfied with referring to her as “Z”, a independent investigator followed by hundreds of thousands on communication platforms, and is famous for revealing digital fraud issues.
“Z” was at the airport when he received alerts of huge and suspicious transactions, so he immediately started following the stolen bitcoin movement through various governors and platforms. Note that the money is washed through more than 15 platforms and service, in attempts to hide its source.
“Z” began to track the transactions until it reached a wallet containing approximately 240 million dollars of encrypted currencies, some of the bitcoin units returned to 2012. He said: “At this point, it was not logical … Why did a person kept his currencies all this period using a suspicious platform known for the flow of illegal money through it?”.
Contact the exchange platforms to alert them and freeze money, and also published a general warning on the “X” (previously Twitter “platform on the ongoing theft process.
“When I saw the amount of the stolen amount, I realized that it was greater than just a regular fraud. Criminals were trying to transfer money quickly through multiple platforms, but we were able to track most of the transfers and alert the platforms to freeze them before they disappeared forever.”
It was not possible for Z until the “Z” was able to communicate with the victim, who was very shocking. The victim used both “Z” and a specialized investigation company to help him track his money, and he also informed the FBI.
Statistics indicate that the theft of cryptocurrencies has become an accelerated phenomenon, as the Cyber Complature Center received more than 69,000 reports in 2023, with losses exceeding $ 5.6 billion. The nature of digital currencies, which makes transactions uncontational and easy to transfer across the world, makes them an ideal goal for criminals, and a great challenge for investigators.
American law enforcement agencies are increasingly dependent on independent experts and investigators such as “Z”, who have high technical skills and extensive relationship networks in the world of digital crime. These investigators merge into Internet criminals forums through fake accounts, and they collect evidence from inside secret chat groups.
The first thread
After the publication of “Z” on the theft, an unknown source contacted him, and presented him with screen records and documented the theft, including the call of the fraudsters with the victim and their reaction after their success in seizing the huge amount.
In their private conversations, they used borrowed names, but they made a fatal mistake. One of them unintentionally showed his computer screen, which revealed his real name in the starting window at the bottom of the screen: “Fair Chital”, a 18 -year -old man from Danbury, the son of the couple who were kidnapped.
Fair Chital was a quiet and superior student in his studies, but he suddenly started reviewing an unjustified wealth in front of his friends, driving luxury cars and wearing expensive clothes, and claiming to have made his money from digital currency trading. His friends noticed this transformation, especially after he was driving sports cars, spent on flights and parties, and hired luxury yachts and homes.
Investigations reveal that Fair was a member of an electronic group known as “The Com”, a network of criminal chat groups whose roots belong to the hackers in the 1980s, and include young Western countries planning various digital fraud, including stealing digital currencies, replacing the SIM, ransom attacks, and storming corporate systems.
Cyber security expert Alison Nixon says that most of these groups are young men from the West, and they often begin to enter this world through video games such as “Minecraft” and “Rune SCAPE”. With the development of gaming servers, black markets originated to sell in -game elements and rare user names, which formed a fertile environment for electronic fraud and exchanging experiences between adolescents aspiring to rapid wealth.
In the world of “Minecraft”, competitive servers appeared offering paid promotions and virtual costumes, and began a black market to sell the elements of the game and rare users names, which may reach thousands of dollars. Frauds spread among the players, and the services of the “reliable mediator” appeared to facilitate the exchange, but this world was also a gateway to commit more complicated electronic crimes.
Over time, some of these young people have moved from simple fraud to huge digital theft, using their technical skills and their relationship networks in carrying out complex operations such as theft of a quarter of a billion dollars of cryptocurrencies.
Interlocking world
In the case of Fair Chital, his digital adventure led him to the world of organized crime, and he ended up involved in one of the largest digital fraud cases in the United States.
After “Z” obtained the name of Fair Chital, it did not take long for him and other investigators to reveal the identity of his partners in the currency theft.
In the recordings he obtained, the thieves addressed some of them with pseudonyms from “The Com”, and sometimes with their real names.
One of the repeated names was “Malon”, Malon Lam, a well -known figure in “The Com”, a 20 -year -old man from Singapore, and he was distinguished by a haircut hanging on his eyes.
After the theft in August 2024, “Z” was able to track Malon using what is known as “open source intelligence”, such as social media.
Rumors have spread in the groups of “The Com” that he was spent with Los Angeles park, without anyone knowing his money, but he was watching a lot of money.
“Z” searched for the most famous theme park in the city, then see Instagram stories of the parks and official accounts. In one of the publications, Malon appeared in diamond sunglasses, standing on the table and throwing $ 100 banknotes on the attendees. And when the money was falling, the crew entered carrying the bottles of champagne with a value of 1500 dollars decorated with fiery spices, and raising banners saying: Malon. Only one night spent about 570 thousand dollars.
According to the court documents, the alleged complications used advanced money laundering methods to hide the money and mislead their identity, using encrypted currency exchange platforms that do not require personal information from customers, and “VPN” contacts to hide their geographical locations.
But one of them made a fatal mistake when he created an account on one of these platforms without using “PNN”, which led to the tracking of the Internet address linked to his home, which led the authorities to arrest him.
In the end, the tracking of digital evidence, and the cooperation of digital investigators with the police, has quickly exposed the perpetrators and arrested them successively, despite the complexity and complexity of the case between the virtual and real worlds.
By that time, the authorities had identified the motivation, the police believed that the group targeted the Chital family to blackmail their son’s money.
The story of the theft of a quarter of a billion coded currencies was not just a digital crime, but rather a mirror of a new era of cross -border crimes, as the thread may start from a video game and end in the courtroom halls.
This issue also reflects an important aspect of the development of the crime in the digital age, as criminals no longer need traditional weapon or organized gangs, but a computer, internet connection and some technical skills are sufficient to achieve fictional profits in a short time. On the other hand, confronting these crimes requires the development of digital investigation tools, cooperation between the public and private sectors, and educating users about the dangers of electronic fraud.
