Russian businessman Sergey Mendelyev received a letter demanding monthly Monero payments

Indefibank chief executive Sergey Mendelyev received a letter from unknown actors, extorting cryptocurrency from him under the threat of disseminating false bomb-threat messages in his name. The businessman told ForkLog.

The authors of the letter demanded monthly payments of Monero, equivalent to $500, calling their offer a ‘discount’.

«Don’t you want that from your name all sorts of bomb threats to be carried out across Russia? Then you can take advantage of the promotional offer: buy immunity for $500 a month in Monero. Payments on the first day of each month in Monero,» the letter states.

The attackers also mentioned Mendelyev’s partner in the DeFi project Indefieco, Alexander Lebedev, and, according to some reports, a connection to the theft of bitcoins from the WEX exchange by entrepreneur Konstantin Malofeev.

If the target refuses to cooperate, the extortionists promised to resume their “bombing” activities from May 2 against various infrastructure facilities in Russia. On that day, Mendelyev’s inbox received about ten replies from city administration mail bots confirming receipt of messages sent in his name.

In a ForkLog interview, the crypto businessman suggested that the authors of the letter are unlikely to be connected to the WEX affair.

«I am 99% sure the person is not writing from Russia, otherwise he would know that nothing works here before May 4, and all his letters would end up in the cat’s litter tray,» he added.

Earlier, in January 2022, Mendelyev’s name was used in a mailout of a series of false bomb-threat messages in various regions of Russia. In the drafted appeals, the attackers listed the businessman’s real email address and phone number.

Back then, Mendelyev tied the attack to investigations he was conducting. In particular, he referenced ForkLog’s article about part of the bitcoins from a wallet identifying itself as a WEX “miner” being transferred to the Binance exchange.

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