Six men accused of kidnapping three family members and a nanny from a Chicago townhouse in October, allegedly forcing a transfer of approximately $15 million in crypto assets.

Recently unsealed federal court documents describe a five-day kidnapping in October in which six men allegedly abducted three members of a Chicago family and their nanny from a Lincoln Park townhouse and forced the transfer of about $15 million in cryptocurrency. According to a 44-page FBI affidavit, one attacker allegedly approached the home claiming he had damaged the garage door; once the door was opened, several armed men rushed in, seizing the occupants, including a son who was grabbed as he exited the shower. The victims were bound and taken in a white Ford van to an Airbnb in Forest Park and later moved to a second house, where they were threatened with death unless large transfers were made from the son’s crypto accounts, primarily in Bitcoin and Ether. Investigators say the captors used the son to initiate transactions and then took control of his wallets to move roughly $15 million in digital assets before releasing the victims on November 1 near a dry cleaner, from where they went to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The FBI and federal prosecutors linked at least six alleged perpetrators using receipts, unused zip ties, surveillance video from rental vehicles and Airbnbs, and blockchain tracing of the crypto movements. Six men have been charged with kidnapping, including Zehuan Wei, 34, who was arrested on January 17 at a California border checkpoint while re-entering the United States, while the others — identified in filings as Fan Zhang, Huajing (or Huaj) Yan, Shengnan Jiang, Shiqiang Lian, and Ye Cao — are believed in part to have fled to China. Authorities report that only about $6 million of the stolen cryptocurrency has so far been accounted for, leaving roughly $9 million still missing, and the case is being cited by analysts as part of a broader trend of targeted kidnappings and home invasions aimed at high-net-worth crypto holders.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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