Bitsonar pyramid founder charged with murder

The Odessa regional prosecutor’s office has sent to court обвинительный акт against the founder of the Bitsonar pyramid Alexander Tovstenko, suspected of organizing the contract murder of a former colleague.

He is charged with an attempted criminal offence (ч.2 ст. 15 УК Украины), and with an intentional contract murder for mercenary motives (п.п. 6, 11 ч. 2 ст. 115 УК Украины).

According to investigators, Alexander Tovstenko ordered the murder of Yaroslav Stadtchenko (also known as Yan Novak). The defendant faces a life sentence.

It was Stadtchenko who exposed the fact that Bitsonar, presenting itself as an investment fund for algorithmic cryptocurrency trading, was a Ponzi scheme. He also named the real organizer of the pyramid — the former Ukrainian official Alexander Tovstenko.

In a conversation with ForkLog, Stadtchenko claimed that Tovstenko had ties to the security services.

On August 26 in Kyiv, Yaroslav Stadtchenko was abducted by unknown individuals. As later disclosed, this was carried out by SBU officers to stage his murder. The client was detained during the transfer of the second part of the reward to the killer in the amount of $5000.

In September Stadtchenko reported violations by Alexander Tovstenko to the FBI.

On December 3, the court released Tovstenko from pre-trial detention to house arrest, and on December 24 returned him to the detention facility.

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