Brit soldier ‘tied up couple and forced them to hand over password to £300,000 in Bitcoin in terrifying raid in Bali’
A BRIT soldier is in jail after he allegedly tied up a couple and forced them to hand over their password to a £300,000 Bitcoin fortune in a terrifying raid in Bali.
Greg Simpson, 36, was arrested and charged with kidnap and robbery after he allegedly tied up an Italian couple and held them at knifepoint at their villa in November.
The disgraced Afghan vet, who is still serving, was said to have been part of a gang of four brazen thieves who made off with £300,000 (5.8bn Indonesian Rupiahs) in Bitcoin during the raid.
A former colleague said Simpson had moved to the South East Asian country after being disciplined by his unit over racist remarks he made during Operation Rescript – the army’s domestic response to the Covid pandemic.
He said the trooper had become “obsessed” with conspiracy theories and extreme right-wing politics, according to the Daily Mail.
“I knew he was likely to get himself into trouble but being accused of a pre-meditated robbery is quite a surprise,” the colleague said.
Indonesian authorities swooped in and arrested Simpson and his alleged right-hand man Nicola Disanto, 34, shortly after the robbery on November 11 but two accomplices are still on the run.
According to Balinese cops, the four men dressed in black and covered their faces with scarves and hands in gloves before storming Principe Nerini, 40, and wife Camilla Guadagnuolo’s home in Seminyak.
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A local report alleges the couple were suddenly woken by an explosion at around 3am on November 11 and held at knifepoint before having their their hands and feet tied.
The thugs then beat Mr Narini and threatened to kill his wife, according to Detik News.
Police Commissioner Jansen Avitus Panjaitan told a press conference that the alleged assailants made off with six mobile phone and forced Mr Narini to hand over his Bitcoin passwords.
The police chief explained: “One of the perpetrators, Nicola Disanto, is a former employee of the victim. The perpetrator was desperate to rob because he felt hurt towards the victim.”
After freeing themselves, the couple checked their Bitcoin accounts to discover £300,000 had been wired into an account owned by alleged side-kick Disanto.
Simpson and Disanto were arrested on charges of related to robbery, confinement and threats, 24 hours later.
Cops seized two knives, a jacket, a pair of trousers and cash as evidence during the arrest.
If convicted, the man face up to nine years in prison.
The former colleague said Simpson had moved to Bali last year after being disciplined for making racist remarks in London.
He told the Daily Mail that Simpson had in the last 10 years got “deeper and deeper into conspiracy theories and extreme right-wing politics”.
“He was overheard on a minibus talking about his belief that certain ethnic groups have lower levels of intelligence.
“For that he was formally disciplined and had his pay and rank reduced.
“He wasn’t always like this but around 2010 there was a marked change in him. He started spending too much time on the internet.
“He became obsessed with bizarre conspiracy theories and David Icke and then became increasingly anti-Semitic, talking a lot about Jewish freemasons and Jewish control.”
A spokesperson for the Army said: “We are aware of an incident in Bali that occurred on 12th November 2021.
“As the matter is currently the subject of an ongoing investigation it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
The Afghan vet’s Facebook page shows pictures of him wearing a “Black Sun” belt buckle – a symbol that was used by the Christchurch mosque murder Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 worshippers in 2019.
Others pictures showed Simpson on patrol in Afghanistan and his likes included a page called “British Nationalism”.