Regulation
Hong Kong baby kidnapping marks crime wave targeting cryptocurrency holders – DL News
Shipping to Asia
- Violent criminals are increasingly invading homes to force cryptocurrency holders to hand over their assets.
- It’s not just Hong Kong: a case in the US has revealed a “robbery gang” targeting cryptocurrencies in homes.
- The kidnapped boy was released after the arrest of two alleged kidnappers.
Last week, Hong Kong police arrested two 38-year-old women from mainland China on charges of kidnapping a three-year-old boy.
The two kidnapped him from a shopping mall in the Tseung Kwan O neighborhood on July 3 before demanding a ransom of $660,000 to be paid in USDT, according to a report by Hong Kong Free Press.
Kwan King-pan, the chief superintendent of the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau, told reporters that police raided the apartment where the boy was being held the next day. He was released and appeared unharmed, media reports said.
The official reminded the public that the police are able to track cryptocurrencies.
“Some criminals have mistakenly thought that cryptocurrencies are more difficult to trace, but I stress that the force is capable and determined to bring them to justice,” Kwan said.
Attacks and kidnappings
The incident is the latest in a series of cryptocurrency-related attacks and kidnappings in the city and elsewhere.
In late March, a 19-year-old was lured to a hotel room in Hung Hom under the pretext of trading cryptocurrencies, police said.
Once there, he was approached by a group of nine individuals who demanded that he hand over the HK$180,000 he had earned from cryptocurrency trading.
Join the community to receive our latest stories and updates
Then two members of the group beat him with baseball bats.
Few other details have been released, but the case is once again being handled by detectives who specialize in triad, or organized crime, cases.
And in May, a 55-year-old cryptocurrency investor in Sheung Shui was kidnapped by four men. The men stopped her car and assaulted her husband with a stun gun before kidnapping her.
She was released by her captors about an hour later. The kidnapping was linked to a dispute over a $1.9 million cryptocurrency investment.
Similar crimes occur outside Hong Kong too.
‘Robbery Squad’
Last month, a U.S. court condemned Remy St Felix, 24, was arrested for leading a “robbery squad” that targeted cryptocurrency holders with violent home invasions across four states.
In April 2023, St Felix, of West Palm Beach, Florida, and an accomplice “assaulted, zip-tied, and held the victim at gunpoint, and threatened more violence against the victim and the victim’s spouse, while other co-conspirators transferred more than $150,000 in cryptocurrency from the victim’s account,” according to the United States Department of Justice.
Similar crimes have occurred in the Philippines, targeting Chinese businessmen, who have been kidnapped and held captive for ransom in cryptocurrencies.
Two men, Xia Kefu an and Sun Jing, were kidnapped in the country last month. On June 21, their families received phone calls demanding $2 million in USDT for their release.
Both were found dead near Manila on June 27.
Several participants at the EthCC in Brussels this week also reported on X that they had been victims of assault.
Callan Quinn, DL News Hong Kong correspondent covering the cryptocurrency industry in Asia. Got a tip? Contact the author at callan@dlnews.com.