Morocco – In a horrific crime that has shocked the city of Kyiv, a 29-year-old Moroccan man was kidnapped, brutally beaten, and murdered after being forced to transfer a large sum of cryptocurrency to his attackers, according to statements from the Kyiv police.
The victim was abducted around midnight on an unspecified date outside his home in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district. Witnesses reported hearing screams and seeing several men beating the victim before forcing him into a car.
Police say the attackers, four men aged 24 to 29, had carefully planned the kidnapping after learning the victim owned several million hryvnias (around $170,000) worth of Bitcoin.
After abducting him, they took him to an abandoned building outside Kyiv, where they violently coerced him into transferring the cryptocurrency to their digital wallets. The men then strangled the victim to death and buried his body in a nearby forest.
Following the kidnapping, Kyiv police launched a major operation, with all police units in Kyiv and the surrounding region mobilized to find and apprehend the perpetrators.
The concerted efforts of law enforcement paid off, leading to the arrest of all four suspects with support from the KORD special police unit.
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As part of efforts to conceal evidence of their crime, the attackers had changed the license plates and appearance of the car used in the kidnapping.
However, during the course of the investigation, police recovered the money, vehicle, and other physical evidence from the suspects.
The four men have been charged with multiple serious offenses under Ukraine’s Criminal Code, including premeditated murder for profit, armed robbery, unlawful imprisonment by an organized group, and concealing a crime. If convicted, they face up to life imprisonment.
The shocking crime has highlighted the risks that can come with owning large amounts of hard-to-trace cryptocurrency assets.
While still relatively rare, cryptocurrency-motivated kidnappings and robberies have been reported in various countries in recent years as the value and mainstream adoption of digital assets like Bitcoin has grown.
The case is being investigated by Kyiv police detectives. The victim’s identity has not been publicly released, and the Moroccan embassy in Kyiv has not yet commented on the killing of one of its citizens.
