THE RECRUITER IN THE DANBURY BITCOIN KIDNAPPING PLOT IS SENTENCED — HIS BROTHER WHO PAID FOR IT GOT 15 YEARS — THE TARGETS WERE A BITCOIN THIEF’S PARENTS

On October 28, 2026, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Connecticut said Judge Sarala V. Nagala in Hartford had sentenced Saif Faiq, 23, of St. Louis, to 48 months in prison and two years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty on June 8, 2026, to conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery over an attempt to rob a family of bitcoin in Danbury in August 2024. He has been held since his arrest on November 12, 2025.

The release gives his part. Faiq recruited people for the crime, travelled to Connecticut for the planned home invasion and kidnapping, coordinated with his brother and helped watch the victims. The brother, Adam Iza, ran logistics and put up money. He pleaded guilty to the same charge and got 15 years on September 9, 2026. An unnamed co-conspirator who had clashed with the victims’ son at a Miami nightclub in July 2024 also paid for it. On October 28 we wrote about Martel Williams, one of the St. Louis crew, who pleaded guilty on October 26 and has no sentencing date.

The targets were not the thief. The release says the people kidnapped on August 25, 2024, were the parents of someone who took part in stealing hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin. Six Florida men were arrested that day after a carjacking of a Lamborghini Urus. The son’s coins were famous, so his parents became the way in.

That is the part no seed backup covers. A key can sit in steel in a safe and still be reached through the people around the person who controls it. The courts now put a price on the planners: four years for the recruiter, 15 for the man who paid. The family paid first. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $80,517.