Ontario Kidnapper Who Demanded $1M Bitcoin Ransom Sentenced to 13 Years

In brief

Keyron Moore received a 13-year sentence, with three years credited for time served.
A youth co-accused, identified only as S.M., will be sentenced in Oshawa on Oct. 3.
The victim was abducted in 2022, tortured, and told to pay $1M in Bitcoin before escaping.

A Toronto-area kidnapping tied to a $1 million Bitcoin demand has led to fresh court rulings, with one man sentenced and a youth awaiting judgment.

Keyron Moore, 39, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison, with three years credited for time served, after being convicted in connection with the abduction, torture, and sexual assault of a woman identified as A.T. in 2022.

Justice M. Townsend handed down the sentence in Newmarket on August 22, imposing concurrent terms for forcible confinement, sexual assault with a firearm, and reckless discharge of a firearm, alongside additional orders including a lifetime weapons ban and a 20-year registration as a sex offender.

The sentencing decision also referenced the youth co-accused, identified only as S.M. under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, noting that Moore is barred from contacting him while in custody. S.M. was convicted in 2024 and is scheduled to be sentenced in Oshawa on October 3.

A non-publication and non-broadcast order was implemented in March 2024 to protect the victim’s identity.

The assault happened on November 1, 2022, when A.T. was abducted outside a Thornhill plaza and forced into a vehicle at gunpoint. She was driven to Barrie, confined in a garage, stripped, beaten, burned, and threatened with a syringe filled with fentanyl while her captors demanded $1 million in Bitcoin, according to a court document from the Ontario Court of Justice published in December last year.

The perpetrators “kept saying that they wanted money as well as cryptocurrency and Bitcoin,” according to a summary line by Detective Renwick, the case’s File Coordinator.

During the ordeal, Moore at one point threatened to shoot her unless she performed sexual acts. A.T. eventually escaped through a garage door and ran to a neighbor’s house to call for help.

The case joins a growing number of violent assaults tied to digital assets, including so-called “$5 wrench attacks,” where victims are physically coerced into surrendering their crypto holdings.

Such incidents show how crypto has become a direct target for extortion, with courts and law enforcement treating digital-asset ransom demands much like traditional armed robbery and kidnapping.

In her victim impact statement, A.T. described the lasting trauma she continues to face.

“I don’t go outside alone. The fear is too overwhelming. I feel like I have a target on my back, like someone is always watching, waiting for the right moment. My heart races at the thought of being approached, followed, or taken.”