Recently, the kidnapping of Pavel Lerner, director of the British exchange house Exmo, was reported. The event took place in the Ukrainian town of Kiev, where the Russian businessman was.
The renowned specialist and researcher in the area of cryptocurrency and distributed accounting technology was doing work in Ukraine. According to a local newspaper that reported the report of the Kiev police, the kidnapping was carried out at approximately noon on Tuesday, as reported by the businessman's acquaintances who noticed his absence at night.
According to statements made by the Obolonsky district police, the incident took place in the vicinity of offices on Stepan Bandera street where Lerner was working. The expert in cryptocurrencies was forced to enter a Mercedes-Benz car, model Vito, by subjects dressed in black and hidden behind ski masks, who disappeared from the area taking him to a destination still unknown by the authorities.
Photo by Pavel Lerner, source: Facebook.com
The same day, spokesmen for the Exmo team spoke up showing their concern for the director whose whereabouts remain unknown. Likewise, they stated that the company's operations were not affected and that customers can remain calm, since the kidnappers do not have access to the private keys of the company's cryptocurrency portfolios, nor to the personal data of the company. the users.
Lerner is a 40-year-old Russian citizen from the border city of Kursk and holds a residence permit in Ukraine. He has also resided in Spain, as can be read in his social networks. The police in charge of the case is actively investigating the whereabouts of the businessman and in his report to the media published the license plate number of the vehicle used to execute this act.
This is not the first case that links cryptocurrencies with crimes that occurred outside the cybernetic environment. At the beginning of last November, the streets of New York City witnessed the theft of 1.8 million Ether. The crime was committed by two criminals. One of them, who carried a firearm, forced his victim to get into a vehicle.
Both were aware that the affected person had almost two million dollars in cryptocurrencies. For this reason, before the victim jumped out of the vehicle, the assailants managed to get their cell phone, their wallet and the keys to their apartment. Thanks to this, the perpetrators were able to violate the security of the affected computer and appropriated the mentioned amount of cryptocurrencies.
The authorities have shown concern about this fact, since, in their opinion, as the price of cryptocurrencies increases and their popularity is increasing, not only cyber criminals will be interested in obtaining illicit profits related to this medium; but, as in this case, this technology can become a new mobile for street crimes.