The State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine has established the involvement of three officers of the Cyber Department of the Security Service (SBU) in the kidnapping of a cryptocurrency trader and the theft of money from him. This is reported in the ruling of the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv.
According to the investigation, in autumn 2020, senior management of the SBU received information that the entrepreneur had a large amount of cryptocurrency.
In broad daylight on 1 October 2020 in Kyiv, outside a pub on Mykhailivska Street, security forces approached the businessman and shoved him into a Volkswagen T5. In the car they took the victim’s mobile phone and keys to the apartment, from which two laptops and a tablet were subsequently removed.
Then they brought the trader to a forest near Parkova Road and, for about an hour and a half, beat him inside the car and demanded to hand over $200 000. After the refusal, the security forces transported the kidnapped person to the Shevchenkivske Police Department.
There they continued to extort funds, lowering the amount to $80 000. The businessman agreed and called his wife, who transferred 7 BTC (at the time equivalent to the ransom) to the cryptocurrency wallet indicated by the security forces.
After this, one of the SBU officers filed a report stating that the entrepreneur had allegedly been detained by them late on 1 October as a person wanted for extradition at the request of the Russian Federation.
According to the State Bureau of Investigation, the criminal group included:
- Deputy Head of the First Directorate of the Department of Counterintelligence Protection of State Interests in the Information Security sphere of the SBU;
- Head of the Department of Counterintelligence Protection of State Interests in the Information Security sphere of the SBU’s Sumy Region Directorate;
- Senior operative of the 3rd Department of the 1st Directorate of the Department of Counterintelligence Protection of State Interests in the Information Security sphere of the SBU.
They were charged with theft of cryptocurrency, robbery with violence, kidnapping, and abuse of office.
All three suspects were placed under house arrest. They have been suspended from their posts.
The investigation is also examining the involvement of eight more SBU employees.
Earlier in July, a Ukrainian blogger staged her kidnapping for a ransom of 5 BTC.
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