Three Tennessee residents were federally indicted for allegedly kidnapping and robbing cryptocurrency owners throughout the Bay Area and Los Angeles, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday.  

Elijah Armstrong, Nino Chindavanh, and Jayden Rucker were indicted on suspicion of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, attempted Hobbs Act robbery and attempted robbery, prosecutors said.  

Armstrong and Rucker were arrested in Los Angeles on December 31, 2025, and Chindavanh was arrested on December 22, 2025 in Sunnyvale.   

According to the indictment which was filed on March 31, the three defendants allegedly conspired to kidnap and rob people from San Francisco, San Jose, Sunnyvale and Los Angeles in order to steal cryptocurrency from them.  

Prosecutors allege the defendants traveled to California from Tennessee and posed as delivery persons to try and gain entry into the alleged victims’ homes. Once inside, the armed defendants allegedly used zip ties and duct tape to assault their victims and restrained one man in an effort to force him to give them his account information. One victim was allegedly forced at gunpoint to sign into his cryptocurrency accounts so that $6.5 million could be transferred over to the alleged thieves.  

All three suspects are in federal custody and Armstrong and Rucker are scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday. Chindavanh is scheduled to appear on June 26.  

 If convicted of all counts, each defendant could be facing up to life in federal prison and fines exceeding $1 million.  

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.