"Electricity" from Belarus was sentenced to 13 years in prison for extorting bitcoins.

A resident of Grodno who extorted bitcoins was sentenced in Belarus! BTCUSD, threatening the victim with murder

Two men tortured a resident of Minsk, demanding to transfer them cryptocurrency in the amount of 27.1 billion Russian rubles. One of the defendants managed to escape. The second was put on trial and sentenced to 13 years in prison. This was reported by the Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus.

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Criminal scheme

In August 2024, two criminals, introducing themselves as electricians, entered the apartment of a resident of Minsk. According to court documents, they tortured the victim for several hours, threatening her with an air pistol with a silencer. The defendants handcuffed the man and repeatedly hit him with a stun gun, demanding to transfer 5,750 BTC (около 21.1 billion рублей). The victim refused to comply with their demands. As a result, the attackers tied him up and gave him 24 hours to think it over, after which they disappeared.

Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of the Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus Kirill Chubkovets noted that law enforcement agencies managed to detain only one of the attackers. The second managed to leave the country. The court found the resident of Hrodna guilty. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison. The offender will be placed in a maximum security penal colony. In addition to the prison term, the attacker was also fined 500 basic units (около 21 thousand Belarusian рублей). The verdict has not yet entered into force and can be appealed.

Global context

A case from Belarus has become part of a troubling global trend. Cryptocurrencies are increasingly becoming the cause of violent crimes. Earlier we reported that in the USA, three teenagers kidnapped a cryptocurrency event and took it to the desert. They needed non-fungible tokens NFTUSDT and other digital assets worth $4 million.

In early May, in France, bandits kidnapped the father of a crypto millionaire, demanding a ransom of €5-7 million. Another local incident occurred on March 13. In Paris, the perpetrators attempted to kidnap the daughter of Paymium crypto company director Pierre Noizat and her two-year-old child. Law enforcement reported that this was the fifth attempt in the country to kidnap individuals connected to cryptocurrency.

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