Cryptocurrency Miner Kidnapped for Ransom in Russia

In Izhevsk, Russia, a 23-year-old bitcoin miner was forcefully kidnapped from his residence as kidnappers demanded a ransom of 15 million rubles ($166,000).

23-Year-Old Russian Bitcoin Miner Kidnapped for Ransom

On Dec. 25, in a fast sequence of occasions, it was reported that the crypto miner was kidnapped and subjected to coercion. The ordeal started when he was abruptly seized from his dwelling and shoved right into a Niva automotive, a mannequin famous for its sturdiness on Russian terrain. Ren TV disclosed that the abductors, together with one acquainted with the sufferer, warned of grave repercussions except the 15 million rubles ($166,000) ransom was promptly delivered.

The captors swiftly relayed their ransom calls for by way of the Telegram messaging app, reaching out on to the sufferer’s brother. They leveraged threats of fabricated prison prices to hasten the fee, stating their intent to border the sufferer as a drug smuggler by planting narcotics on him after which alerting the police.

The culprits, recognized as people with a historical past of theft and extortion, are at the moment dealing with extreme authorized penalties. The gravity of the costs mirrors the Russian judiciary’s strategy to one of these abduction situation. The report signifies that the perpetrators might be sentenced to as a lot as 12 years of incarceration for his or her actions.

Regrettably, since 2014, over 100 physical assaults have focused crypto holders. Initially, these incidents had been sparse, however as the worth of crypto belongings soared, so did the frequency of violent acts towards their homeowners. These assaults embody strategies like kidnappings, assaults, and residential invasions. In Nov. 2023, Changpeng Zhao, the previous CEO of Binance, generally known as CZ, revealed that criminals had kidnapped a Binance consumer, coercing them to empty their crypto wallets.

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