A 27-year-old Missouri man has pleaded guilty to his role in a violent scheme to steal bitcoin from a Connecticut family.

Martel Williams, 27, of St. Louis, entered the plea Monday in federal court in Hartford to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, a charge commonly known as Hobbs Act robbery. The Hobbs Act, enacted in 1946, is a federal law covering robbery or extortion that affects interstate commerce, which is why such cases are prosecuted in federal court. The offense carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan announced the plea, which is detailed in the Justice Department's official press release.

According to prosecutors, the plot began in August 2024. The people coordinating the attack sought bitcoin belonging to a man who had participated in a theft worth hundreds of millions of dollars. To obtain it, they recruited Williams and two associates from St. Louis.

The crew's assignment was to force its way into the target's home, threaten him, and demand that he transfer the cryptocurrency into accounts controlled by the conspirators. The method reflects a broader pattern in cryptocurrency crime, in which attackers pursue the people who hold the keys — through physical coercion or compromised wallet devices — rather than attacking the bitcoin network itself.

Two Days of Surveillance, Then an Abort

Williams and others traveled to Connecticut between August 21 and August 24, 2024. They rented vehicles and gathered supplies, including air rifles, walkie-talkies, and a laptop computer. For two days, they stalked the target and his parents as they waited for an opening to get inside the house.

That opening never came. Williams and his associates feared they had been captured on the home's security cameras, and they grew frustrated with the plan and with a lack of communication from their coordinators. They left Connecticut without carrying out the job.

Shortly afterward, a second crew of six men from Florida arrived to attempt the scheme again. On August 25, 2024, Danbury police arrested the six men after a violent carjacking, during which they beat and kidnapped two people inside the vehicle. Those two victims were the parents of the target.

Local outlets have tied the target to a bitcoin theft in the range of $230 million to $245 million, though the exact figure varies from report to report. The federal case itself centers on the attempted robbery, not the original theft.

Federal agents arrested Williams on July 17, 2026. He remains free pending sentencing, and no sentencing date has been set.

The FBI New Haven Violent Crimes Task Force, FBI Los Angeles, FBI St. Louis, and the Danbury Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Karen L. Peck and Stephanie T. Levick are prosecuting it. Other defendants in the Danbury case have also pleaded guilty, according to local reporting. Sentencing hearings and the outcomes for the remaining co-defendants will mark the next stages of the prosecution.

Scammer Loses Stolen Bitcoin to Ledger Thieves

Earlier this month, a scammer who had stolen about 60 bitcoin (roughly $4.8 million) through a fake-review task scam lost it all when thieves emptied three Ledger addresses to which the scammer had moved the proceeds on October 9.

Blockchain analysts at Chainalysis said the transfers went into one wallet reported as stolen. The wider Ledger incident, in which a criminal group allegedly implanted seed-phrase-reading devices sold through Malaysian reseller CryptoBilis, may have drained about $86 million. Ledger said it was working with law enforcement and has confirmed that no other vendors were targeted. The episode followed a July attack on Coldcard that cost users close to $120 million through a firmware bug.

This article was originally published on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.