A man from St. Louis admitted to participating in a violent conspiracy to attempt to steal Bitcoin from a family in Connecticut.
27-year-old Martel Williams ( Martel Williams ) pleaded guilty on Monday in Hartford Federal Court to "conspiring to interfere with business activities by robbery," a charge commonly known as Hobbs Act robbery ( Hobbs Act robbery ).
The maximum penalty for this charge is 20 years in prison. U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan ( David X . Sullivan ) announced this plea.
The prosecution claims that this conspiracy began in August 2024. Those who planned the attack wanted to obtain Bitcoin held by a man who had been involved in a theft worth hundreds of millions of dollars. For this purpose, they recruited Williams along with two other accomplices from St. Louis.
This group originally planned to force their way into the target residence, threaten the person there, and demand that they transfer cryptocurrencies to accounts controlled by their accomplices.
Between August 21 and August 24, 2024, Williams and others traveled to Connecticut, rented a vehicle, and prepared the necessary supplies, including air guns, walkie-talkies, and a laptop computer. Over the course of two days, they continuously followed their target and their parents, waiting for an opportunity to enter the house.
Camera, a sense of frustration, and a failed Bitcoin burglary attempt
The opportunity never presented itself. Williams and his accomplices were worried that they had been captured by the home's security cameras. They were also frustrated by the lack of communication with their commander regarding the plan, and in the end, they left Connecticut without carrying out the operation.
Not long after, another team composed of 6 men from Florida arrived, ready to carry out this conspiracy once again. On August 25, 2024, the Danbury police arrested these 6 individuals following a violent carjacking incident. The police stated that these people beat and kidnapped two victims inside the car, who turned out to be the parents of the target individuals.
Local media has linked the target individual to a Bitcoin theft case involving an amount between $230 million and $245 million, although different reports provide varying specific figures. The federal case itself focuses on an attempted robbery, rather than the initial theft case.
Federal agents arrested Williams on July 17, 2026. He is currently on bail while awaiting sentencing, and the date of the sentencing has not yet been determined. The FBI's New Haven Violent Crimes Task Force, the FBI Los Angeles Field Office, the FBI St. Louis Field Office, and the Danbury Police Department jointly investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Karen L. Peck ( Karen L . Peck ) and Stephanie T. Levick ( Stephanie T . Levick ) are in charge of the prosecution.
According to local reports, other defendants in the Danbury case have also pleaded guilty.
Sarcastic “Retribution” of Bitcoin
Earlier this month, a scammer stole approximately 60 bitcoins, worth around $4.8 million, through a fake review task scam. However, on October 9th, when the three Ledger addresses to which the illicit funds were transferred were compromised, all of those bitcoins were completely stolen.
Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis stated that these transfers flowed into a wallet that was reported to have been stolen; in the larger Ledger incident, it is alleged that a criminal gang implanted devices capable of reading mnemonic phrases through a Malaysian reseller CryptoBilis, which may have resulted in losses of approximately 86 million US dollars. Ledger indicated that they are cooperating with law enforcement authorities and confirmed that no other resellers were affected beyond those involved in the transaction. Previously, Ledger also suffered an Coldcard attack in July, during which users lost nearly 120 million US dollars due to a firmware vulnerability.
