A federal grand jury in New Haven has returned a superseding indictment charging three men for their alleged roles in a kidnapping in Danbury in August 2024 believed to be tied to a multimillion dollar crypto theft.
The indictment charges 22-year-old James Schwab of Georgia, 25-year-old Adam Iza of California and 22-year-old Saif Faiq of Missouri with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.
Schwab, who was first arrested in January and is free on $1.5 million bond, had already been charged by indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping before the superseding indictment was returned on Oct. 28 and unsealed on Thursday.
Faiq was arrested on Nov. 12 and is detained pending his arraignment in Connecticut, federal officials said
Iza has been detained since Sept. 24, 2024, after he was charged in the Central District of California with unrelated federal offenses.
According to federal authorities, investigators alleged that Schwab, Iza and Faiq planned and coordinated a carjacking and kidnapping on Aug. 25, 2024, targeting the parents of an individual who is suspected of participating in the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. Authorities said Schwab allegedly had an altercation with the victims’ son in a Miami nightclub in July 2024.
Officers with the Danbury Police Department received multiple 911 calls around 5:40 p.m. reporting that several males had just assaulted a man and forced him into a white work van. Responding officers spotted the van on Clapboard Ridge Road near the intersection of East Gate Road and tried to pull it over, officials said.
The driver allegedly accelerated quickly and crashed about a mile away on Cowperthwaite Street, officials said. Four men dressed in black allegedly abandoned the van and fled on foot. They were all apprehended nearby.
Two additional suspects were later found at a short-term rental home in Roxbury. The victims’ Lamborghini was found abandoned in the woods off of East King Street.
Inside the back of the van, police found a man and a woman bound with duct tape. The man had been severely beaten with a baseball bat and was suffering from injuries to his face and arm, federal authorities said. Both victims were taken to an area hospital to be further evaluated.
According to officials, the victims reported that they were both in a Lamborghini Urus when they were allegedly rear-ended by a Honda Civic on Damia Drive in Danbury. A white work van then cut in front of their vehicle before the victims alleged that they were forcibly removed from the Lamborghini and dragged to the van and bound with duct tape, authorities said. When the man tried to resist, the kidnappers allegedly punched him in the face and struck him with a baseball bat, according to officials.
Federal authorities said both victims alleged that they were repeatedly told they would be killed.
Schwab was allegedly in regular communication with some of the kidnappers in the days preceding the carjacking, according to officials. He has been accused of funding the conspiracy and helping arrange travel and lodging for the kidnappers, authorities said.
According to federal officials, the six Florida residents charged in connection with the kidnapping have pleaded guilty.
