A San Francisco property owned by a venture capitalist with close ties to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was the scene of a violent armed robbery over the weekend, where attackers tortured a resident and forced the transfer of $11 million (£8.7m) in cryptocurrency.
The harrowing incident occurred at the Mission District home of Lachy Groom, a prominent tech investor, early Stripe employee, and former partner of Altman, according to reports from the New York Post and ZeroHedge.
On Saturday evening, an assailant posing as a delivery driver gained access to the property by asking for a resident identified as “Joshua”, another tech investor living at the address.
Once inside, the armed suspect restrained the victim. Sources cited by the New York Post stated that the victim was tied up, beaten and tortured during the 90-minute ordeal. The attacker reportedly held a phone on speakerphone, through which foreign voices reeled off the victim’s personal information, before pouring liquid over him.
Approximately $11 million in Ethereum and Bitcoin was drained from crypto accounts during the attack.
Robber posing as a delivery driver steals $11,000,000 in crypto after pulling a gun and duct-taping the victim in San Francisco pic.twitter.com/Jny8HfVvGC
— BAY AREA STATE OF MIND (@YayAreaNews) November 24, 2025
The robbery has heightened security concerns for high-net-worth individuals in Silicon Valley who hold significant digital assets in self-custody. Sources suggested the heist was a sophisticated, targeted attack potentially linked to an organised crime group.
Prominent tech investor Garry Tan initially shared security footage of the entry on social media, warning the community against holding large amounts of crypto in self-custody rather than in institutional vaults.
San Francisco police confirmed the investigation is ongoing, with no arrests made so far.
