Five captors who kidnapped and tortured two French cryptocurrency millionaires over a 52-hour ordeal in an east London flat have been convicted at Inner London Crown Court.

The two victims, both French nationals in their 20s, were staying in Kensington when they were abducted. Prosecuting barrister Heidi Stonecliffe KC stated that the victims may have drawn the attention of criminals through their publicly extravagant lifestyles. The case underscores a vulnerability unique to cryptocurrency holders: unlike traditional bank accounts, self-custodied crypto wallets can be accessed by anyone who obtains the owner's private keys or seed phrase, and transactions cannot be reversed once broadcast.

According to the prosecution, the pair had just parked their rented black Mercedes in Shadwell when three masked men armed with a gun and a knife forced them back into the vehicle and drove them to a flat in a residential block called Rathbone East in Canning Town.

The victims were bound with tape and cable ties, beaten, and had socks stuffed into their mouths. Over the course of approximately 52 hours of captivity, boiling water was poured over their bodies and a cigarette was extinguished in one victim's mouth. Both were threatened with genital mutilation unless they paid a $150,000 ransom. They were also denied food, and one victim stated he was forced to drink toilet water.

The captors ultimately received $30,000 in cryptocurrency and released one of the victims. The second victim was driven away in a separate vehicle and later stated in a recorded interview that he believed he had been "sold" to a second gang that intended to extract further payments.

The Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad located the gang after a friend traveling with the two men left a phone inside the Mercedes, enabling officers to trace where the victims were being held. Police pursued a vehicle carrying three of the defendants — Julius George, Isaac Bakoya, and Adel Sineen — at speeds reaching 70 mph through residential streets until the car struck a lamppost. All three were apprehended on foot.

A jury convicted two of the defendants of conspiracy to blackmail and false imprisonment, and three others of false imprisonment. One of those convicted, Yasir Mohamed, who drove a victim to the flat, had prior convictions for drug dealing and knife possession.

However, the individual who allegedly directed the operation remains at large. Investigators identified him as Ibrahim Mohamed, also known as "Nino" and saved as "Fatboy" in one defendant's phone. He reportedly issued instructions to the group via WhatsApp and Snapchat.

Wrench Attacks on the Rise Globally

Violent physical assaults targeting cryptocurrency holders — commonly called "wrench attacks," a term derived from the concept that a wrench is easier than codebreaking — have increased markedly worldwide. Blockchain security firms and law enforcement agencies have repeatedly warned that while the crypto community invests heavily in digital security, physical security remains an underaddressed threat surface, particularly for individuals whose wealth is visible through on-chain wallet activity or public lifestyle displays.

Blockchain security firm CertiK logged 34 confirmed wrench attacks in the first four months of 2026, representing a 41% increase over the same period in 2025.

France has recorded approximately 70 crypto-related kidnappings or extortion attempts since January 2026, resulting in 88 people being charged. Several of these cases have been linked to a data breach at the crypto tax platform Waltio, which exposed information on roughly 50,000 users — illustrating how centralized data sources can become targeting lists for organized criminal groups.

In May 2026, four men were sentenced to up to six and a half years at St Albans Crown Court for beating a City of London worker in Hertfordshire with a wrench and draining more than £10,000 from his accounts.

A Moroccan court sentenced Mohamed Hamid Bajou to 25 years in prison for orchestrating a series of abductions in France, including the January 2025 kidnapping of Ledger co-founder David Balland, whose attackers severed one of his fingers.

In New York, prosecutors have charged two men — William Duplessie and John Woeltz — in connection with the alleged three-week torture of an Italian tourist in an attempt to obtain his Bitcoin password.