Miami man pleads guilty to botched ransom scheme that may have been linked to $240 million cryptocurrency heist – WSVN 7News | Miami news, weather, sports

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A South Florida man pleaded guilty Thursday in connection with the carjacking and kidnapping of a Connecticut couple in what authorities say was a botched ransom plot that may have been linked to the theft of $240 million in cryptocurrency .

Michael Rivas, 19, of Miami, was one of six men arrested after a series of incidents in Danbury on August 25. He pleaded guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy in federal court in Hartford. Two more are expected to file similar pleas in the same court on Friday.

The couple was driving a new Lamborghini SUV when the suspects forced them out of the SUV, assaulted them, put them in a van and tied them up, police said. Eyewitnesses immediately informed the police. Four men were arrested after abandoning their vehicles, including a van, and fleeing on foot, and two others were later taken into custody at a nearby home the group was renting through Airbnb, authorities said. The couple was injured but survived.

Rivas, wearing a dark brown prison uniform with his legs shackled during the hearing, apologized for his actions. He said it was a “stupid” decision to help one of his co-accused carry out what he described as a “vendetta”. He did not elaborate.

His attorney, Brian Wolfe, said Rivas accepted a co-defendant’s invitation to participate in the conspiracy with the hope of getting a share of the ransom money, and he regrets the decision.

According to the federal indictment, the suspects “believed that the victim’s son had access to a significant amount of digital currency” and planned to hold the son ransom in digital currency.

Just a week earlier, at least two thieves stole $240 million worth of bitcoins through elaborate online and phone scams, then splurged on cars, mansions, trips, jewelry and nights out at clubs, authorities said.

Publicly, federal prosecutors and agents have not conclusively linked the kidnapping to the theft of bitcoins. Officials declined to comment on possible connections between the two cases, including how the six suspects knew the couple’s son had large amounts of digital currency.

But federal agents told Danbury police that the FBI was investigating whether the couple’s son was involved in the bitcoin theft, said Danbury Sgt. This was stated by Steven Castrovinci to the Associated Press. Neither Danbury police nor federal authorities have released the names of the couple or their son.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ross Weingarten declined to comment after Thursday’s court hearing.

In mid-September, federal prosecutors announced that two men, Malone Lam, 20, and Jendiel Serrano, 21, had been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with the theft of cryptocurrency.

Court documents allege unnamed co-conspirators were involved in the scam involving two men. Their attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.

Prosecutors said in court documents that Lam, Serrano and unnamed co-conspirators posed as Google technical support staff and the cryptocurrency exchange when contacting the theft victim to offer help with the alleged security breach.

A victim from Washington, DC believed them and gave them remote access to his computer on August 18th. According to prosecutors, the alleged thieves stole more than 4,100 bitcoins, which were valued at more than $240 million at the time. This amount of Bitcoin is now worth almost $380 million.

Serrano, of Los Angeles, admitted during an interview with federal investigators that he used the stolen currency to buy three cars worth a total of more than $1 million and a watch worth $500,000, prosecutors said. He also said he had about $20 million in the victim’s currency and agreed to wire the funds to the FBI, authorities said.

Meanwhile, Lam, a Singaporean national with addresses in Los Angeles and Miami, Florida, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars a night at Los Angeles nightclubs and bought custom-made Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Porsches, prosecutors said. He also rented two mansions in Miami, bought a $2 million watch, and owned a Lamborghini Revuelto worth over $1 million.

Federal prosecutors said in court documents that at least $100 million of the stolen funds remain unaccounted for.

Exactly one week after the cryptocurrency heist, a couple from Danbury, a town of more than 80,000 people on the New York border, were forced to get out of their SUV in their hometown after one of the thieves’ cars hit them and two other cars. surrounded them. The group attacked the man with a baseball bat and dragged the woman by her hair, forcing them into a van where the pair were bound with duct tape, police said.

“I deeply regret my irresponsible behavior,” Rivas told U.S. District Judge Sarali Nagali on Thursday. “I should have known better.”

“My parents didn’t teach me that when I was a kid,” he added.

Rivas and five other men also face charges of kidnapping and assault in a Connecticut state court. The other men are also from Florida.

The sentencing was scheduled for May 13. The prosecution and defense parties agreed on the punishment, which provides from 11 to 14 years of imprisonment.