Evan Luthra details Oxford kidnapping, losing over $2M in crypto
英語の原文翻訳を見る
文字サイズ本文を読む ↓
画像を読み込み中
The incident highlights the vulnerability of crypto investors to physical threats and underscores the need for enhanced security measures and legal frameworks.
The Forbes 30 Under 30 investor says five masked men assaulted him and drained his exchange accounts in about 30 minutes
Sun 8 Nov 2026 · 22:39 EST · 3 min read
In Security
Share
Crypto investor Evan Luthra says five masked men kidnapped and assaulted him in Oxford, England, then made off with more than $2 million in digital assets.
The whole operation reportedly took about 30 minutes. Luthra, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, has now gone public as the victim of the November 4, 2025 attack. He has also said that just under $1 million of the stolen funds has been recovered. One suspect faces charges, but the trial has been pushed back to November 2027.
How the robbery unfolded
According to the account Luthra has shared, he had just attended an event at Oxford University. He was with four friends when five masked assailants ambushed the group.
The attackers assaulted Luthra and forced him to unlock his phone using Face ID. Once inside the phone, the kidnappers moved fast. The haul included more than $1.5 million taken from Binance and approximately $600,000 worth of Ethereum (ETH) pulled from Gate.io.
They did not stop at crypto. The group also took a Richard Mille watch valued at around £450,000.
Thames Valley Police confirmed the incident. The force opened an investigation that included financial tracing and a review of CCTV footage.
Recovery, court orders, and a frustrating delay
Some of the money has come back. Luthra said nearly $1 million in assets was recovered with help from exchanges and a UK court order issued under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).
Binance’s share of that recovery for Luthra came to about $370,000.
Luthra has also pointed to a source of frustration. He said delays in getting access to his phone, which he attributes to police procedures, made the situation worse. In his view, those delays significantly affected how much he ultimately lost.
Luthra’s public profile has also been cited as a potential factor in why he was targeted.
The case against the suspect
Legal proceedings are underway against one suspect, Abdul Malik Cali, 24. He faces five counts of conspiracy to commit robbery.
The trial was originally scheduled for November 2026. It has since been postponed until November 2027, which means more than two years will have passed between the attack and a courtroom reckoning.
Luthra’s identity as the victim was not publicly known at first. It came out months later, in a November 2026 interview where he also described the partial recovery of his assets.
The wider problem of wrench attacks
The case lands amid a reported surge in so-called wrench attacks against crypto investors around the world. The term refers to criminals who skip the hacking entirely and use physical force to make a victim hand over access.
What this means for crypto holders and exchanges
Exchanges also have a role that this case puts on display. Binance’s recovery of roughly $370,000 for Luthra shows that centralized platforms can sometimes freeze or claw back funds when they work with law enforcement and courts.
The gap between more than $2 million taken and just under $1 million recovered shows how much can slip away before anyone acts.
The POCA court order used in this case shows that existing UK proceeds-of-crime tools can be applied to digital assets held on exchanges, which may give future victims a clearer path to getting at least part of their funds back.
Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
