On the afternoon of August 25, 2024, in the tranquil suburb of Danbury, Connecticut, Sushil and Radhika Chetal were searching for a new home while cruising in their luxury Lamborghini Urus, worth $240,000.
Out of nowhere, a white Honda Civic collided with their car from behind, while a Ram ProMaster van obstructed their path. In broad daylight, six men dressed in black and wearing masks swooped in and kidnapped them. Thus began a narrative that would uncover one of the most unusual intersections of digital and physical crime.
As the kidnappers restrained the Chetals with packing tape and struck them with a baseball bat, an off-duty FBI agent witnessed the incident and promptly notified law enforcement. A chase ensued, leading to the arrest of the kidnappers just hours later. However, this wasn’t merely a case of ransom.
According to an in-depth report by The New York Times, the underlying motives came to light when police discovered the white Civic parked outside an Airbnb in Roxbury, along with two additional suspects. The Chetals were not the intended victims; rather, it was their son’s staggering wealth garnered from one of the largest cryptocurrency heists in history that was the real target.
A week prior to the abduction, a Washington resident had fallen victim to a phone scam. Believing he was talking to security representatives from Google and the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, he inadvertently granted the scammers access to his accounts. The hackers walked away with 4,100 Bitcoin, valued at $243 million at the time. The case’s chief investigator was the well-known and anonymous ZachXBT, an independent researcher specializing in digital crime, boasting nearly 850,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter).
ZachXBT monitored the transactions in near real-time using specialized software designed to track cryptocurrency movements. This led him to a list of wallets associated with users in the underground community of Minecraft known as “Com”—a network that transitioned from a player community to a global criminal syndicate. Among the records, one name stood out: 18-year-old Veer Chetal, the kidnapped couple’s son.
Veer, an honor student, suddenly showcased a lifestyle of indulgence featuring a Corvette, BMW, Lamborghini, Gucci shoes, and lavish yacht parties. He attributed his newfound wealth to “crypto investments.” However, the investigation uncovered that he was a member of Com and a key organizer of the heist.
This investigation also linked to others, including 20-year-old Malone Lam from Singapore, known as Greavys or Anne Hathaway, who was known for throwing extravagant parties in Los Angeles, sometimes spending hundreds of thousands in a single night. Another was Jeandiel Serrano, 21, who was apprehended at LAX sporting a $500,000 watch and acknowledged his involvement while returning $20 million worth of Bitcoin.
The FBI, through its Virtual Assets Unit, collaborated with private organizations like Cryptoforensic and top independent researchers to untangle the case’s complexities. Utilizing blockchain analysis, data gathered from Discord and Telegram, as well as Instagram stories related to parties, the federal investigation led to arrests and charges for conspiracy, money laundering, and kidnapping.
Authorities discovered the connection to the kidnapping of Veer’s parents when they accessed the kidnappers’ phones. The suspects had been using group chats to strategize the abduction, aiming to extort the young hacker for the return of the stolen funds. By September 24, a federal grand jury in Connecticut had indicted six young men from Florida on charges of kidnapping, robbery, and conspiracy.
This case involving the Chetal family underscores how the digital underworld is manifesting in the physical realm. The once loosely organized “troll” community of Minecraft servers has transformed into a sophisticated criminal enterprise, unafraid to resort to intimidation, violence, and abductions.
Cybersecurity researcher Allison Nixon from the Unit 221B team noted that the Com community has evolved from a disorganized group of teens into a criminal organization. Their activities now extend beyond digital hacks to encompass “brickings,” armed robberies, and “SWATtings.”
As of March 2025, five of the six kidnappers had pleaded guilty and faced the possibility of up to 15 years in prison. Veer Chetal himself was arrested and charged with federal crimes.
The Lamborghini that served as the catalyst for the kidnapping remains secured in a police lot, a stark reminder of the young man who carved his own path to ruin through a video game.
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