Saif Faiq, 23, of St. Louis, Missouri, was sentenced in federal court in Hartford, Connecticut, on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, to 48 months — four years — in prison for his role in a plot to rob Bitcoin that ended in the kidnapping of a couple in Danbury in August 2024. U.S. District Judge Sarala V. Nagala also ordered Faiq to serve two years of supervised release after the prison term. The sentence was announced by David X. Sullivan, the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, District of Connecticut

What happened in Danbury on August 25, 2024

According to Connecticut news reporting on earlier police statements, the Danbury couple were driving a blue Lamborghini Urus near Damia Drive on August 25, 2024, on their way to look at a new home, when their vehicle was rammed. A group of masked men attacked the couple with baseball bats and forced them into a van. Witnesses reported the kidnapping to police, officers tracked the van to Cowperthwaite Street, and the couple were found bound with duct tape. Both victims were taken to hospital after they were rescued.

Source: Connecticut news reporting (Europe Says / CT Insider)

Danbury Police arrested six Florida men on the day of the carjacking and kidnapping, according to the Justice Department. Investigators then established why the couple had been targeted: they are the parents of an individual who, prosecutors say, participated in the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin. Connecticut reporting identifies the son as Veer Chetal and puts the alleged theft at about $245 million — more than 4,000 Bitcoin taken from a Washington man. The kidnapping, prosecutors say, was an attempt to steal some of that Bitcoin from the family.

Faiq's role, according to prosecutors

Prosecutors said Faiq recruited participants for the crime, travelled to Connecticut for the planned home invasion and kidnapping, coordinated with his brother Adam Iza, and helped conduct surveillance on the victims. Another alleged co-conspirator, who had an altercation with the victims' son in a Miami nightclub in July 2024, was in regular communication with certain of the kidnappers in the days before the crime, provided funding for it, and helped arrange the participants' transportation and lodging, according to court documents and statements made in court.

The brother's case, and the guilty pleas

Faiq's brother, Adam Iza, communicated with the kidnappers by cellphone and encrypted messaging applications, directed the logistics of the scheme and also provided funding, prosecutors said. Iza pleaded guilty to the same offence and was sentenced on September 9, 2026, to 15 years of imprisonment. Faiq himself pleaded guilty on June 8, 2026, to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery — a charge known as Hobbs Act robbery. He has been detained since his arrest on November 12, 2025.

Background: when a digital theft turns into a street crime

The case shows how a theft carried out online can turn into physical violence offline. The Bitcoin at the centre of the case was allegedly stolen without anyone entering a home — yet recovering or seizing it, investigators say, led a crew across several states to a suburban Connecticut street, where the people attacked were not accused of stealing anything themselves. Police across the United States have warned crypto holders and their families that publicly visible wealth can make relatives a target, and this prosecution is one of the most serious examples to reach sentencing.

What happens next

Faiq, who has been in custody since November 2025, will serve his 48-month sentence in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release. His sentencing closes his own part of the Danbury case; his brother Adam Iza is already serving a 15-year term, and the six Florida men arrested on the day of the kidnapping have faced their own kidnapping and carjacking cases. The wider Bitcoin-theft case that made the family a target continues separately.