CT resident guilty in crypto heist that led to parents' kidnapping

Connecticut resident pleads guilty in $245M crypto heist that led to his parents' kidnapping

By Lisa Backus, Kendra Baker, Staff WritersUpdated June 21, 2025 12:35 p.m.

A Connecticut man whose parents were kidnapped in Danbury after he played a role in a $245 million Bitcoin theft pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges and has agreed to testify against his codefendants even though he will likely be deported, according to recently unsealed federal court documents.

Veer Chetal, 19, from Danbury, Connecticut, was one of three men charged with stealing 4,100 Bitcoins from a victim in Washington, D.C., known as "RW" in court papers as part of an online scam that involved the men pretending to be trusted employees of well-known firms last August, documents said. The trio lived large after the heist, spending millions of dollars on cars, jewelry, rental mansions and nightclub parties, according to the Associated Press.

A week after the theft, Chetal’s parents were assaulted and kidnapped for a short period in Danbury in a failed ransom plot aimed at Chetal, who the assailants believed had a large amount of cryptocurrency, previous reports indicate.

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Chetal was not charged by federal authorities in the kidnapping plot. He pleaded guilty in November to fraud and money laundering charges but the case was sealed until last week, the documents show.

A newly released plea agreement indicates he will cooperate with federal authorities, including testifying against the other men. He will also be required to provide restitution toward the nearly $250 million theft and was told that since he was not a citizen of the United States, he will likely be deported, the documents said.

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He is also required to forfeit $548,000 in cash and a long list of items including several Rolex watches, 21 pairs of pants, seven jackets, shirts, boxes of high-end clothing, designer suitcases and other items seized during searches of a home he rented in New Jersey and his home in Danbury, federal documents said.

He was involved in about 50 similar thefts and usually called potential victims pretending to be with security or technical support for a large company, in some cases Google or Yahoo! gaining the victim's trust and personal information so that one of the other men could access and steal their virtual currency, a separate plea agreement document said.

Chetal, Malone Lam and Jeandiel Serrano met while playing "Minecraft" online and they agreed to participate in a scheme to steal virtual currency from unwitting victims from November 2023 and September 2024, federal documents said.

The cases against the other two men are continuing, federal documents show.

Initially, little information on Chetal's arrest and charges were made available by federal authorities. But allegations against Chetal and others were believed to stem from the ongoing federal investigation into a $230 million cryptocurrency theft, to which investigators linked an August 2024 carjacking and attempted kidnapping of a Danbury couple.

Authorities said the Aug. 25 kidnapping attempt was part of an intended ransom demand connected with the couple’s son’s alleged involvement in the crypto heist, which involved the theft and laundering of more than 4,000 Bitcoin from a man in Washington, D.C.

Up until this week, authorities had declined to comment on Chetal's arrest or confirm his possible relation to the Danbury couple.

The target of the theft was described in federal court documents as “a high-net-worth crypto investor from the early days of cryptocurrency,” and authorities said the stolen Bitcoin was valued at more than $230 million at the time of the theft.

The couple targeted in the Aug. 25 attempted kidnapping — which resulted in the arrest of six Florida men on state and federal charges — were hospitalized following the attack near Damia Drive and told police they initially thought they were targeted because of their high-end SUV.

The attempted kidnappers — who police say rammed the couple’s Lamborghini and threw them into a waiting van to be tied up and driven away — were identified as Angel Borrero, 23, Reynaldo Diaz, 22, Anthony Pena, 23, Josue Romero, 26, Ricardo Estrada, 21, and Michael Rivas, 18.

Borrero, Pena, Romero, Estrada and Rivas have pleaded guilty to conspiracy and kidnapping charges, according to federal court records, which show the five defendants scheduled for sentencing in May and June.

Diaz, the only one of the group to not accept a plea agreement, has a trial date set for Sept. 23. He’s also the only one of the six who hasn’t entered pleas in his state criminal case, according to court records, which show Borrero, Pena, Romero, Estrada and Rivas have all pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges in state Superior Court in Danbury.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut recently announced that James Schwab, a 22-year-old from Peachtree, Ga., was federally charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping after an ongoing FBI investigation revealed his connection to the case.

Schwab is accused of “planning and facilitating” the Aug. 25 attempted kidnapping as a way to extort money from the couple’s son, who’s referred to as “V.C.” in a federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport in January.

The complaint says Schwab and V.C. got into a verbal and physical altercation at a Miami nightclub in July 2024, after which Schwab and another individual devised a plan to have V.C.’s parents kidnapped for ransom.

In addition to V.C., the criminal complaint in Schwab’s case includes the initials of the couple targeted in the Aug. 25 kidnapping plot — which match those of the parents of a Danbury resident whose name and age align with that of the Veer Chetal who is being held by U.S. Marshals in Virginia.

Chetal is a 2024 graduate of Immaculate High School, according to the fall 2024 edition of the private Catholic school’s “Traditions” publication, which shows he donated up to $99 to his alma mater and his parents donated between $1,000 and $2,499.

During his time at the school, a Hudl profile shows Chetal was a member of ATI United, Immaculate and Henry Abbott Technical High School’s co-op football team. He also completed Harvard’s Future Lawyers Program in 2022, according to a News-Times article.

Serrano and Lam were indicted in September on conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments charges, stemming from their alleged involvement in the scheme, which authorities say began Aug. 18, 2024.

Serrano was a 21-year-old residing in Los Angeles at the time of his arrest and Lam — a 20-year-old Singapore citizen — had addresses in Miami and Los Angeles, according to court documents, which say they and at least one other individual stole thousands of Bitcoin from “a high net-worth investor” in Washington, D.C., last summer.

The scheme involved calling the victim, pretending to be Google Support Team members and telling him they needed to shut down his Google account due to a “hack attempt,” according to a detention order filed in federal court.

After convincing the victim to provide security codes to his Google account, authorities say the conspirators accessed the man’s OneDrive and Gmail account to locate his cryptocurrency assets, as well as scoured his private accounts in search of additional information.

Upon locating cryptocurrency exchange records in the victim’s Google account, they allegedly agreed to have one of them call the victim, posing as a Gemini Crypto Exchange Security team member.

In doing so, the court documents say “they convinced the victim that his cryptocurrency accounts had also been compromised” and to transfer about $3 million — described in the document as “a small portion ... of his cryptocurrency” — to a crypto wallet that Lam controlled.

They also convinced the victim to download a remote desktop connection program “for his own ‘security,’” according to court documents, which say the program allowed Lam to log into the victim’s computer and steal more than 4,000 Bitcoin.

After laundering the stolen digital currency through various exchanges and mixers, authorities say the conspirators used the stolen funds to pay for international travel, service at nightclubs and rental homes in Los Angeles and Miami.

As of March, Chetal, Serrano and Lam were being held in Virginia detention facilities, according to online custody records, which showed Serrano at the Northern Neck Regional Jail and Lam at the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center.

This story includes prior reporting by the Associated Press.

June 21, 2025|Updated June 21, 2025 12:35 p.m.

Lisa Backus is a local, state and national award-winning crime reporter who covers breaking news and criminal justice policy for Hearst Connecticut Media Group. When she's not working she can be found hanging out with her animal companions Spot and Morgan and her six grandchildren.

Kendra Baker is a reporter with the News-Times who previously worked as a general assignment reporter for The Wilton Bulletin. Before The Bulletin, Kendra freelanced for The Redding Pilot and interned for the New Haven Independent. She graduated from Southern Connecticut State University in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in psychology. Her work has also been published on ConnecticutHistory.org.

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