According to law enforcement agencies, four men beat up a foreigner and dragged him into a car in the Solomensky district of Kyiv. The attackers demanded that the victim transfer 7 million Ukrainian hryvnia (about $170,000) worth of bitcoins to their cryptocurrency addresses. Having received what they wanted, they strangled the investor and buried his body in the forest.
Neighbors who heard screams outside immediately reported to the police. During the investigation, law enforcement officers found out that the kidnapping was carefully planned – the attackers knew that the man owned bitcoins worth several million hryvnia.
Police said that in an attempt to cover their tracks, the perpetrators changed the license plate of the car used to commit the crime. However, this did not help and four men aged between 24 and 29 were arrested. They had already managed to convert the stolen bitcoins into cash, and these funds were confiscated.
The men were brought to trial on charges of kidnapping, embezzlement, murder and concealing a crime. They could all spend the rest of their lives in prison if convicted.
This is not the first case of kidnapping for ransom in cryptocurrency. In December 2017, Pavel Lerner, an employee of the British crypto platform Exmo Finance, was kidnapped. Six masked men with guns pushed him into a minibus with a stolen license plate. The kidnappers received a ransom in bitcoins in the amount of $1 million.
Source: Bits
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