arrested

According to CTV News, the Toronto police announced the arrest of 7 people in a violent kidnapping case targeting cryptocurrency holders and the subsequent investigation, including 3 members of the Canadian Armed Forces, with a total of 82 criminal charges filed.The police stated that the victim was kidnapped on July 25, handcuffed, and beaten, as the suspects attempted to obtain access to their cryptocurrency assets and corporate security systems, after which they were released. The investigation also seized firearms, drugs, and approximately 2,500 stolen military ammunition, and the case is still under investigation.

According to Bitcoin.com News citing Turkish media Sözcü, Richard Heart, the founder of HEX and the L1 public chain PulseChain, was detained by Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MİT) in a joint operation with the police at a residence in Istanbul. The operation seized approximately 4 million dollars in cash, 53 Rolex watches, 11 Patek Philippe watches, firearms and ammunition, as well as a large amount of electronic equipment. His wife, A.K., was also detained.The U.S. SEC previously accused him of issuing unregistered securities through related projects, raising over 1 billion dollars, and allegedly misappropriating at least 12 million dollars to purchase luxury goods. The related lawsuit was dismissed in 2025 due to jurisdictional issues. In addition, Heart is wanted by Finnish authorities for serious tax evasion and assault cases.

According to Decrypt, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested OpenAI engineer Abdulrahman Alfozan on October 9. The suspect, 35 years old and of Saudi nationality, has been employed at OpenAI since July 2025 and is accused of using or attempting to use devices to intercept oral communications. He made his first appearance in federal court this Tuesday. OpenAI stated that it has referred the matter to the FBI and thanked the relevant agents and prosecutors for their swift action, while the FBI's investigation is ongoing.OpenAI released a statement on X, stating that the company discovered a sophisticated recording device hidden in the office and used its own model to analyze the device and its origin, ultimately identifying that an employee placed it there a few days prior. According to the criminal complaint, the device was discovered around September 30, plugged into a USB port on the back of a television, wrapped in paper towels, with its contents encrypted, and was installed around September 28. Surveillance footage showed that Alfozan was seen near the conference room multiple times before the device was discovered, but he had neither the authority to enter that room nor to attend the related meetings, which typically involved confidential technical and strategic information.The complaint states that before the device was installed, Alfozan used internal productivity tools to inquire about OpenAI's office building address, conference rooms, room capacities, schedules, and locations of meetings between executives and external partners. A chatbot account associated with his spouse asked between September 24 and 30 how to create a continuous recording device, add Wi-Fi connectivity, enhance real-time listening capabilities, and encrypt the device's SD card.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that the losses associated with the scam center have reached 1.7 billion dollars. During the same period, law enforcement actions conducted in West Africa resulted in the arrest of 28 individuals.The Department of Justice (DOJ) stated that during a week-long coordinated law enforcement operation, law enforcement agencies removed over 3.7 million online accounts, pages, and groups, and identified over 11 million dollars in funds that could potentially be frozen.

On October 13, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of two Americans in an operation targeting North Korean IT personnel who entered U.S. companies under false identities, and the seizure of approximately 187 computer devices. Michael James Bostelle from Pennsylvania and Juan Cecilio Pena Carrillo from Texas were arrested based on an indictment from the Northern District of Ohio Federal Court. Prosecutors allege that the scheme involved over 70 U.S. employers, generating approximately $3 million in revenue for overseas IT personnel. The two are charged with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to commit identity theft, with Pena additionally charged with aggravated identity theft.The device seizure operation is part of "Operation Lone Star," coordinated by federal law enforcement in the Northern District of Texas. From September 21 to 25, the FBI executed searches at over 40 suspected "laptop farm" residences in Texas, seizing devices including laptops and keyboards, video, and mouse equipment for remote access. According to the Ohio indictment, domestic accomplices received laptops issued by employers at home and then allowed overseas personnel to control them via remote access software or hardware, making it appear as if they were located in the U.S. and accessing company systems, while the accomplices received salaries and transferred funds overseas.The indictment mentions cryptocurrency as one of the means for transferring funds overseas. Trey Michael Nolte, a resident of Ohio, is listed as a co-conspirator but has not been charged in this case; the indictment states that in a conversation on July 8, 2024, he described managing transfers between bank accounts and virtual currencies using spreadsheets, subsequently transferring funds to the defendant Sun Sheng Ming;

According to reports from Japan's Jiji Press and TBS, Japanese police have arrested 6 individuals suspected of laundering money for a fraud group through cryptocurrency assets. Police investigations indicate that the gang is suspected of handling approximately 91 million yen (about 580,000 USD) in fraud funds between February and March 2024, involving around 30 victims.The funds first entered the company's bank account, then were exchanged for BTC, converted to USDT through overseas channels, and returned to the fraud group. The individuals involved are reportedly charging a commission of about 1%.

A 28-year-old core member of the globally renowned ransomware group Qilin has been arrested in Japan and was extradited to Germany on October 2. Reports indicate that the man is suspected of illegally infiltrating the systems of a logistics company in Germany in September 2024, encrypting data, and demanding a ransom of approximately $165,000 (about 26 million yen) in Bitcoin.Investigations show that he was responsible for building the attack systems within the Qilin criminal network and took a cut from the ransoms collected by various branch execution teams. Japanese police apprehended him while he was traveling to Osaka in late May this year, and he was subsequently handed over to German authorities after being deemed eligible by the Tokyo High Court. Qilin operates under a "ransomware as a service" (RaaS) model and previously claimed responsibility for a cyber attack on Japan's Asahi Group in 2025.

According to Decrypt, the European Union's law enforcement agency reported that Spanish police arrested a 16-year-old Romanian suspect in Alicante, suspected of being an administrator and main operator of the ransomware group KillSec.Two other suspects in their twenties were arrested in the UK and Romania, respectively; another developer who just turned 18 in August this year has been identified but has not been arrested due to some crimes occurring during their minor years.This operation, codenamed Operation KillSwitch, was led by the Hamburg State Criminal Police and the city's prosecution office, focusing on approximately 1,000 suspected attacks worldwide, with about 500 confirmed as successful intrusions.Law enforcement searched eight locations in Spain, Greece, Romania, and the UK, seized five central servers, and redirected related domain names to seizure announcement pages, while also confiscating at least 110 TB of stolen data.KillSec has been active since around 2024, exploiting software vulnerabilities and poorly secured cloud storage entry points to infiltrate corporate systems, copying internal data and naming victim organizations on dark web leak sites, threatening to publicly release documents to demand cryptocurrency ransoms, and if the target refuses to pay, they release the data for free.The Swiss Federal Police noted that the group also employed double extortion tactics, first encrypting servers and then applying pressure. U.S. prosecutors' charges indicate that a Dutch national residing in the UK, Fouad Eltibrizi (nicknamed Archduke), was indicted by a federal grand jury in Puerto Rico on September 16, subsequently arrested, and awaiting extradition, facing up to 10 years in prison. The European Cybercrime Centre, under the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, is assisting in tracing cryptocurrency funds and conducting digital forensics.

According to the Star newspaper, police in the central region of Perak, in collaboration with the National Energy Company (TNB), launched an operation in Seri Iskandar to dismantle an illegal cryptocurrency mining site and arrested two local men.The individuals involved are suspected of illegally connecting wires to power Bitcoin mining machines. Police seized 30 Bitcoin mining machines, routers, desktop switches, and a roll of wire at the scene. The case is being investigated under Section 427 of the Penal Code and Section 37(1) of the Electricity Supply Act 1990.Police emphasized that stealing electricity for mining is not only illegal but can also cause significant losses to the power company and pose a fire risk.

According to a report by Fabien Arnaud from the French media Midi Libre, a resident in Saint-Jean-de-Védas near Montpellier, France, was the victim of a home invasion and extortion related to cryptocurrency. The police acted quickly after the incident and have arrested three suspects.It is reported that the victim had previously encountered a similar violent extortion related to cryptocurrency on April 11 of this year.

The police of the United Arab Emirates and Sweden arrested 7 suspects involved in an international money laundering network. Investigators stated that tracking the cryptocurrency transactions of this network revealed its connections to organized crime and contract killings. According to the UAE News Agency citing the Ministry of Interior, the leader of the network is a Swedish citizen who had previously fled Sweden and was wanted by Interpol with a red notice, ultimately being captured in the UAE. Additionally, 6 other suspects were arrested simultaneously in Sweden, and all 7 have been charged.The Ministry of Interior stated that the network processed approximately 70 million Swedish kronor (about 7.1 million USD) in criminal cash proceeds over 10 months and transferred it to other criminal entities while using cryptocurrency to "transfer and move the value of these funds." Tracking cryptocurrency transactions and analyzing digital evidence helped investigators uncover the financial links between this network and other criminal activities, including organized crime and contract killings.Abdulaziz Al Ahmad, the Director of the Federal Criminal Police of the UAE Ministry of Interior, stated that the country will continue to track criminal networks and cut off their sources of funding. Anders Wiberg, head of the International Department of the Swedish Police, said that cooperation with the UAE was a key factor in the successful resolution of this case. Both countries launched simultaneous arrest operations after intelligence sharing and direct security coordination. Previously, Sweden had requested the police to increase efforts to seize illegal digital assets, as the issue of gangs using social media and encrypted applications to recruit paid killers has become increasingly serious.

According to Ledauphine, a violent kidnapping case related to cryptocurrency occurred in Taning, Haute-Savoie, France. Late at night on March 14 of this year, two masked men broke into the home of a 48-year-old woman, bound and beat her for several hours, and attempted to seize her cryptocurrency assets, subsequently trying to forcibly take her away. The victim was seriously injured but managed to escape using her survival instincts and sought help from a neighbor.The case is led by the Lyon inter-regional specialized judicial authority and is being investigated by the Chambéry gendarmerie search squad. After six months of in-depth investigation, police launched simultaneous operations in early September in the Île-de-France region, Isère, and Brittany, mobilizing over 60 gendarmes, successfully arresting five suspects in their early twenties, four of whom were formally charged, and three were detained pending trial. This case marks the third violent extortion incident targeting cryptocurrency holders in the Savoie region within a year.

According to Bloomberg, Belgian prosecutors stated on September 7 that a Chinese man, who also holds Belgian nationality, was arrested on May 10 at Brussels Airport while attempting to board a flight back to Beijing on suspicion of engaging in espionage activities against a Belgian semiconductor company. The investigation may point to the illegal transfer of specialized intellectual property and trade secrets related to gallium nitride chip production abroad.The investigation is related to the bankruptcy case of Belgan BV, which announced its bankruptcy in July 2024. Prosecutors indicated that there are signs suggesting that the man held a senior research position at the Belgian company while also serving as a director of a Chinese company engaged in similar manufacturing activities. This Chinese company was established a few months after he joined the Belgian company and was funded by a Chinese investment fund. This is the latest in a series of suspected espionage cases in Belgium.

According to IT Home, the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) has announced the results of the new anti-fraud operation "Jackal IV." This operation will last from November 2025 to June 2026 and involves 22 countries and regions worldwide, focusing on combating online financial crimes such as romance scams, cryptocurrency and investment fraud, email scams, and money laundering. A total of 58 people were arrested in this round of operations, and the identities of 263 individuals involved have been confirmed.Among them, the Argentine police seized a "Crime-as-a-Service" (CaaS) network that provided website domain and money laundering services, arresting 17 people and confirming the identities of 196 individuals involved. The South African police raided 7 locations in Johannesburg, arresting 39 suspects accused of romance scams and investment fraud targeting retirees from English-speaking countries, while seizing $2.67 million and freezing 257 bank accounts.In addition, the Italian police confirmed one suspect involved in a cross-European money laundering network, discovering that a single bank account was linked to money laundering transactions amounting to €845,000; the Romanian police dismantled an investment fraud gang, arresting 11 people and seizing illegal assets such as cash, cryptocurrency, and real estate.

The Public Security Bureau of Hongkou District, Shanghai, China, recently solved a case involving cross-border illegal settlement and illegal foreign exchange trading using virtual currency, arresting 9 criminal suspects and involving an amount of over 200 million yuan. The suspects, including a person named Li, established a technology company at the beginning of 2024 to seek illegal profits, building two platforms online: "Cross-Border Fund Exchange" and "Virtual Credit Card Issuance and Settlement." They solicited customers both online and offline, illegally conducting exchange and settlement services for virtual currency and cross-border funds, profiting through transaction fees, service fees, card issuance fees, withdrawal fees, and other means.Investigators stated, "The uniqueness of this case lies in the fact that the criminals developed two apps and publicly solicited customers on such a large scale, which has never been seen before. The platforms built in this case are themselves a closed-loop illegal financial service system, with all transactions settled internally on the platform. This mode of crime has a higher degree of scale, a longer chain, and is more deceptive." Reports indicate that on the "Cross-Border Fund Exchange" platform, the criminal gang collected customers' virtual currency overseas and exchanged it for foreign currency, forming a "fund pool," and then realized cross-border settlement through fabricated contracts, achieving the exchange and transfer of virtual currency to RMB. On the "Virtual Credit Card Issuance and Settlement" platform, the criminal gang "cooperated" with several overseas private banks to issue virtual credit cards to customers, who could use the card for consumption, but the repayment process had to be settled in virtual currency; the gang exchanged virtual currency for foreign currency overseas, relying on false cross-border settlements to complete clearing with overseas card merchants.

Polish Olympic Committee President Radosław Piszczek was arrested on Thursday, suspected of receiving kickbacks from the cryptocurrency platform Zondacrypto during the signing of a sponsorship agreement. Polish Sports Minister Jakub Rudnicki confirmed the arrest on the X platform, stating, "Such a person should not hold the position of President of the Polish Olympic Committee; Piszczek has brought shame to Polish sports." Interior Minister Marcin Kwiatkowski referred to him as "a symbol of extreme corruption plaguing the Olympic movement."According to the investigation, Piszczek facilitated the sponsorship agreement between the Polish Olympic Committee and Zondacrypto in October 2025, which promised cryptocurrency rewards to medalists of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. The Polish government accused Zondacrypto of having ties to nationalist opposition groups, organized crime, and Russian intelligence agencies, estimating that the platform's collapse caused losses of about 350 million zlotys (approximately 80 million euros), affecting around 30,000 people. The Interior Minister described Zondacrypto as "essentially a Ponzi scheme."Media investigations also revealed that Piszczek received a Patek Philippe watch worth approximately 40,000 euros from Zondacrypto CEO Przemysław Kral, who claimed the watch was purchased out of his own pocket. Kral is currently cooperating with prosecutors in hopes of a reduced sentence. Zondacrypto was founded by Sylwester Sucheck in 2014, who went missing in 2022, with Kral taking over his position. The Polish prosecutors launched an investigation in April of this year, and most Polish sports federations subsequently called for Piszczek's resignation.

According to Caixin, the Hong Kong police responded to the abnormal liquidation case of Star Bridge Capital's gold trading, stating that multiple reports have been received, with the reported amount of funds that could not be retrieved totaling approximately HKD 6.63 million. After investigation, the case is temporarily classified as fraud and has been handed over to the third team of the Central District Criminal Investigation Unit for follow-up, with no arrests made yet.According to information obtained by the affected investors in this case, as of 1:50 PM, the number of people who have reported to the Hong Kong police (and have obtained a report number) is approximately 180.

According to actu, a couple in the Landes department of France was invaded, taken hostage, and kidnapped by assailants in their home. The assailants targeted the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies they held. Around 4 a.m., several criminals entered the residence, threatening and pressuring the couple to hand over a large amount of crypto assets.The two were subsequently taken away: the man was later found in the town of Solférino, completely naked and with multiple cuts on his body. The woman was found in another vehicle, in a different province at a considerable distance. After the incident, the French gendarmerie quickly blocked the roads and launched an investigation. Two men have already been arrested. The case is being handled by the Bordeaux Interregional Specialized Court (JIRS) and the National Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime (PNACO).

According to a report by the Korea United News Agency, the Gwangju Police Agency's Cyber Crime Investigation Team will arrest and transfer three suspects led by A (in their 60s), who are suspected of establishing offices in Seoul, Gwangju in South Jeolla Province, and Gunsan in North Jeolla Province since November 2024. They allegedly deceived over 100 elderly individuals aged 70 to 80 into investing in virtual assets with false promises such as "guaranteed principal" and "potential profits of hundreds of billions of Korean won," accumulating approximately 500 million Korean won in fraud.The police stated that there are likely still unreported victims and are continuing to expand the investigation, reminding the public to remain vigilant against investment offers that promise guaranteed principal and high returns.

According to News.bitcoin, MoneyFlip CEO Marcos Arturo Kleiman Tronllan was arrested for allegedly hiring a hitman. The investigation initially targeted currency exchange businesses near the US-Mexico border, suspecting that he used the business to evade the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act and launder money through cross-border transactions (to clean drug trafficking proceeds).In February 2026, an undercover agent from the Department of Homeland Security contacted Kleiman, requesting to exchange dollars claimed to be from drug transactions into cryptocurrency. Kleiman exchanged approximately $750,000 into cryptocurrency and transferred it to the undercover wallet, charging a 10% fee. During discussions, Kleiman asked the undercover agent to help collect debts from a Mexican businessman and to commit murder, agreeing to pay $40,000 for kidnapping and murder. Kleiman paid a cash deposit of $5,000 in two installments; after the undercover agent presented forged "victim murder" photos and videos, he delivered an additional $5,000 in cash and approximately $25,000 USDT as final payment.