Three Tennessee men have been accused of traveling to the Bay Area and posing as delivery workers to kidnap and rob cryptocurrency owners in a scheme that prosecutors say forced one victim to hand over about $6.5 million. A federal grand jury indicted Elijah Armstrong, 21, Nino Chindavanh, 21, and Jayden Rucker, 25, and they are now in federal custody.

Prosecutors said the trio targeted victims in San Francisco, San Jose and Sunnyvale, using firearms, duct tape and zip ties to assault and restrain people they believed had access to digital assets. In one alleged attack, a victim was forced at gunpoint to sign into his cryptocurrency accounts and transfer the money to a wallet controlled by the co-conspirators.

The arrests came in stages. Chindavanh was taken into custody in Sunnyvale on Dec. 22, 2025, and Armstrong and Rucker were arrested days later in Los Angeles. Armstrong and Rucker are scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, while Chindavanh is due back in court in June.

The case adds to a growing body of violent thefts tied to cryptocurrency wealth, but prosecutors say this one stands out for the way it crossed state lines and relied on the appearance of routine delivery work to get inside victims’ homes. Authorities said the defendants traveled from Tennessee to carry out the alleged crimes, then used that cover to gain access or try to gain access to residences before turning to force.

Craig Missakian, the U.S. attorney handling the case, said the defendants terrorized their victims in hopes of stealing vast sums of cryptocurrency, calling the scheme sophisticated, brazen, violent and dangerous. Matt Cobo, who spoke for the FBI, said the indictment shows the agency’s commitment to protecting communities from violent and organized criminal activity and said the bureau will not tolerate criminals who come into local neighborhoods to terrorize residents.

The investigation involved the FBI, the San Francisco Police Department, the San Jose Police Department, the Sunnyvale Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department. With the men already indicted and in custody, the next courtroom dates will begin to test the government’s account of a plan that prosecutors say blended kidnapping, robbery and digital theft into one coordinated attack.