Brazen bitcoin kidnapping and carjacking co-conspirator pleads guilty, faces up to 20 years in prison: DOJ

Saif Faiq, one of the organizers of a brazen bitcoin-related kidnapping scheme in 2024, has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in a Hartford, CT federal court on Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. He faces up to 20 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on August 28.

In 2024, Faiq and his brother, Adam Iza, organized a plan to kidnap the parents of a crypto millionaire in an extortion scheme. Faiq, according to the DOJ, recruited six men from Florida, organized their travel to Connecticut, and helped plan a home invasion after surveilling his victims. 

These six men, who were charged separately and pleaded guilty to kidnapping and carjacking offenses, carjacked a Lamborghini Urus in Danbury, Connecticut, in broad daylight. Local reports indicate the perpetrators rear-ended the vehicle, surrounded it with a van, pulled the occupants out, beat them with a baseball bat, and briefly took them into custody. 

The two victims were Sushil and Radhika Chetal, parents of Veer Chetal, who himself had just participated in a sophisticated social-engineering scam to steal about 4,100 bitcoins and was flaunting his ill-gotten wealth in a Miami nightclub when he met one of Faiq’s alleged co-conspirators. 

Chetal pleaded guilty to the theft, committed with two others, last November, and awaits sentencing.

Faiq and his brother, Iza, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery. Iza pleaded on June 1. Faiq has been detained since his arrest on Nov. 12, 2025.