Russian programmer flaunts wealth and gets kidnapped, losing 10.4 BTC

According to Kommersant, the police in Ivanovo, Russia have arrested 5 men suspected of kidnapping, robbery, and stealing cryptocurrency. The suspects identified a programmer in his 20s through photos of luxury cars and trips abroad on social media, and on September 6, they kidnapped him to a garage and threatened him with violence.

The suspects stole 1 million rubles in cash, an iPhone, and a MacBook, and transferred about 10.4 BTC from his cryptocurrency wallet to an unidentified address, with total losses exceeding 84 million rubles. After the incident, the victim was abandoned in the woods.

The police stated that due to a drone attack, there was a network outage in the area, and the suspects switched to using regular phones to communicate, which allowed the police to intercept the calls and capture them. All 5 have prior felony convictions, and some of the stolen money has been used to purchase real estate and cars, facing up to 15 years in prison.