The attackers found the young programmer’s account on social media: his photos showed him driving expensive cars—Ferraris, BMWs, and Mercedes-Benzes—and often traveling abroad. They began surveilling the young man and discovered that he was just over twenty years old and supplied products to major companies.
On September 6, bandits attacked a young man as he was walking to a store. They handcuffed him and took him to the Energetik garage cooperative. There, men wearing balaclavas and carrying pistols beat the programmer for several hours, threatening to torture him—they said they would use an iron and a soldering iron, then threatened to cut off his ears.
Under pressure, the young man handed over 1 million rubles in cash, as well as an iPhone and a MacBook. The attackers then transferred almost 10.4 bitcoins from his crypto wallets to an account belonging to someone unknown to investigators. The total losses exceeded 84 million rubles. Afterwards, they drove the victim to a forest and left him there with his hands tied.
A stroke of luck helped investigators track down the criminals, Ivanovo law enforcement officials say. The internet went down in the city amid an attack by Ukrainian drones, and the criminals, who usually communicated via messaging apps, switched to regular phone calls. This allowed authorities to intercept their conversations, track down five men and arrest them. The suspects had already spent some of the stolen money on apartments and cars. All five had previously served time for serious crimes and met in prison, law enforcement officials say. The detainees are now being investigated for possible involvement in other similar crimes. The accused face up to 15 years in prison.
Attacks on cryptocurrency holders are on the rise worldwide. From January to June, specialists at the American company Chainalysis recorded 46 such incidents, with total losses exceeding $30 million.
