{"id":37154,"date":"2025-07-04T12:32:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T12:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.tradesilvania.com\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T12:32:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T12:32:00","slug":"three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Men Sentenced to 12 Years in Crypto Investor Kidnapping Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Three-Men-Sentenced-to-12-Years-in-Crypto-Investor-Kidnapping-Case.png\" alt=\"Three Men Sentenced to 12 Years in Crypto Investor Kidnapping Case\" \/>\n            <\/p>\n<p>Three men were sentenced on Thursday by a criminal court in Brussels to 12 years in prison each for the kidnapping of crypto investor Stephane Winkel&#8217;s wife. The incident occurred on December 20, 2024, outside the couple\u2019s home, when the victim was forced into a French-registered van. Police intercepted the vehicle near Bruges and arrested the three suspects. A fourth accomplice, a minor, was referred to juvenile court.<\/p>\n<p>The court rejected the defendants\u2019 claims that they were coerced by unidentified \u201csponsors\u201d and classified the act as a professionally executed hostage-taking. The victims were awarded more than one million euros (approximately $1.2 million) in damages.<\/p>\n<p>The case is part of a broader wave of cryptocurrency-related kidnappings across Europe. Belgian and French authorities continue to investigate similar incidents, with several key suspects still at large. Interpol and Moroccan police recently arrested a prime suspect believed to be involved in related abductions, according to Belgian media reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>            Three men were sentenced on Thursday by a criminal court in Brussels to 12 years in prison each for the kidnapping of crypto investor Stephane Winkel&#39;s wife. The incident occurred on December 20, 2024, outside the couple\u2019s home, when the victim was forced into a French-registered van.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[99,98],"class_list":["post-37154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-en","tag-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Three Men Sentenced to 12 Years in Crypto Investor Kidnapping Case<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Crypto kidnapping: Three men sentenced in crypto-related abduction as crypto kidnapping cases surge across Europe.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Men Sentenced to 12 Years in Crypto Investor Kidnapping Case\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Crypto kidnapping: Three men sentenced in crypto-related abduction as crypto kidnapping cases surge across Europe.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tradesilvania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-04T12:32:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Three-Men-Sentenced-to-12-Years-in-Crypto-Investor-Kidnapping-Case.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ciprian Dobrescu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ciprian Dobrescu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ciprian Dobrescu\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/8b618e5f08987bd1790437e243343e0e\"},\"headline\":\"Three Men Sentenced to 12 Years in Crypto Investor Kidnapping Case\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-04T12:32:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/\"},\"wordCount\":162,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Three-Men-Sentenced-to-12-Years-in-Crypto-Investor-Kidnapping-Case.png\",\"keywords\":[\"en\",\"News\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/\",\"name\":\"Three Men Sentenced to 12 Years in Crypto Investor Kidnapping Case\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Three-Men-Sentenced-to-12-Years-in-Crypto-Investor-Kidnapping-Case.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-04T12:32:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Crypto kidnapping: Three men sentenced in crypto-related abduction as crypto kidnapping cases surge across Europe.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Three-Men-Sentenced-to-12-Years-in-Crypto-Investor-Kidnapping-Case.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Three-Men-Sentenced-to-12-Years-in-Crypto-Investor-Kidnapping-Case.png\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Three Men Sentenced to 12 Years in Crypto Investor Kidnapping Case\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Tradesilvania\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Tradesilvania\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/logo.svg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/logo.svg.png\",\"width\":1023,\"height\":138,\"caption\":\"Tradesilvania\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/8b618e5f08987bd1790437e243343e0e\",\"name\":\"Ciprian Dobrescu\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9d4a0036c29f1993936138cf5d96dd56bbdb88e32e9bcda4c184bc1b2579e18?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9d4a0036c29f1993936138cf5d96dd56bbdb88e32e9bcda4c184bc1b2579e18?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9d4a0036c29f1993936138cf5d96dd56bbdb88e32e9bcda4c184bc1b2579e18?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ciprian Dobrescu\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/author\/ciprian\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Three Men Sentenced to 12 Years in Crypto Investor Kidnapping Case","description":"Crypto kidnapping: Three men sentenced in crypto-related abduction as crypto kidnapping cases surge across Europe.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Three Men Sentenced to 12 Years in Crypto Investor Kidnapping Case","og_description":"Crypto kidnapping: Three men sentenced in crypto-related abduction as crypto kidnapping cases surge across Europe.","og_site_name":"Tradesilvania","article_published_time":"2025-07-04T12:32:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Three-Men-Sentenced-to-12-Years-in-Crypto-Investor-Kidnapping-Case.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Ciprian Dobrescu","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ciprian Dobrescu","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/"},"author":{"name":"Ciprian Dobrescu","@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/8b618e5f08987bd1790437e243343e0e"},"headline":"Three Men Sentenced to 12 Years in Crypto Investor Kidnapping Case","datePublished":"2025-07-04T12:32:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/"},"wordCount":162,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Three-Men-Sentenced-to-12-Years-in-Crypto-Investor-Kidnapping-Case.png","keywords":["en","News"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/","url":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/","name":"Three Men Sentenced to 12 Years in Crypto Investor Kidnapping Case","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Three-Men-Sentenced-to-12-Years-in-Crypto-Investor-Kidnapping-Case.png","datePublished":"2025-07-04T12:32:00+00:00","description":"Crypto kidnapping: Three men sentenced in crypto-related abduction as crypto kidnapping cases surge across Europe.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Three-Men-Sentenced-to-12-Years-in-Crypto-Investor-Kidnapping-Case.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Three-Men-Sentenced-to-12-Years-in-Crypto-Investor-Kidnapping-Case.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/news\/three-men-sentenced-to-12-years-in-crypto-investor-kidnapping-case\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Three Men Sentenced to 12 Years in Crypto Investor Kidnapping Case"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/","name":"Tradesilvania","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#organization","name":"Tradesilvania","url":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/logo.svg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/logo.svg.png","width":1023,"height":138,"caption":"Tradesilvania"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/8b618e5f08987bd1790437e243343e0e","name":"Ciprian Dobrescu","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9d4a0036c29f1993936138cf5d96dd56bbdb88e32e9bcda4c184bc1b2579e18?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9d4a0036c29f1993936138cf5d96dd56bbdb88e32e9bcda4c184bc1b2579e18?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9d4a0036c29f1993936138cf5d96dd56bbdb88e32e9bcda4c184bc1b2579e18?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ciprian Dobrescu"},"url":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/author\/ciprian\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradesilvania.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}