Cryptocurrency CEO Kidnapped, Released After Paying $1 Million Ransom
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Dean Skurka, the President and CEO of Canadian cryptocurrency company WonderFi, was kidnapped on Wednesday and held for ransom.
According to CBC Toronto, Dean Skurka was grabbed by the criminals in downtown Toronto just before 6 p.m.
A Toronto Police Service spokesperson reported that the perpetrators of the kidnapping forced Skurka into a vehicle and demanded money for his safe release.
A source revealed to CBC Toronto that Skurka was eventually released after electronically paying the kidnappers a ransom of $1 million. After being released, he was found in Centennial Park in Toronto.
“The safety and security of all of WonderFi’s employees are paramount,” Skurka told CBC Toronto, speaking about the incident in an email. “Client funds and data remain safe, and were not impacted by this incident.”
WonderFi is a publicly traded cryptocurrency platform that claims on its website to have over $1.35 billion in assets under custody.
Jameson Lopp, the co-founder and chief security officer of Casa, a company that helps consumers and companies securely store cryptocurrencies and manage private keys, told CBC Toronto that WonderFi CEO Dean Skurka is, according to his records, the 171st time suspects have used physical violence to steal Bitcoins. Bitcoin hit a record high on Wednesday, climbing above $75,000.
“As the price goes up, more awareness of the space permeates throughout society and as a result, more criminally minded people decide they want to try to figure out what the ROI of executing a physical attack against a known crypto holder is,” he said.
This past March, another Canadian, Ontario’s self-proclaimed Crypto King Aiden Pleterski, claimed in bankruptcy documents that he had been kidnapped and beaten for ransom.
The 24-year-old has been charged with taking in at least $41.5 million from investors, but rather than putting the money into cryptocurrency and foreign exchange, as he said he would, he allegedly only invested about $670,000 of it.