Bitcoin Ransom Delivered to Alleged Taiwanese Kidnappers
Following the kidnapping of billionaire Pearl Oriental Oil chairman Wong Yul-Kwan, it has been reported that the family of the business mogul has allegedly paid nearly $2 million in bitcoin to the men responsible for his capture after they sent repeated threats of physical violence towards their hostage. Yul-Kwan had been missing since late September, and was held in captivity for well over a month, blindfolded and handcuffed to a bed in an abandoned house in the Kouhu Township in western Taiwan. It is believed that the kidnappers repeatedly burned Yul-Kwan's face with cigarettes and....
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On October 22, the family of billionaire Pearl Oriental Oil chairman Wong Yuk-Kwan paid Taiwanese kidnappers US$1.68 million in bitcoin after they threatened to “dig out the eyeballs or chop off the legs” of Yuk-Kwan, The Standard HK reports. The 68-year old was abducted on September 20 by two men and was kept in an abandoned house in Kouhu township, Yunlin county in western Taiwan for 38 days, blindfolded and cuffed to a bed. A few days after the abduction, the Taiwanese kidnappers called and sent e-mails to Yuk-Kwan’s wife, asking for US$9 million in bitcoin to be sent in less than two....
Chinese authorities have jailed four individuals that were accused of kidnapping one person and demanding “hundreds of bitcoins” as a ransom payment. While the alleged kidnapping is reported to have occurred in the Philippines, the cooperation between the two countries eventually led to the arrest and eventual sentencing of the Chinese kidnappers.
A Ransom Demand
Four Chinese citizens accused of kidnapping and demanding bitcoin as ransom payment have been jailed, China’s Embassy in the Philippines has said. Two of the accused — namely, Liu and Zhang....
A Venezuelan merchant was kidnapped and killed after his family failed to gather a ransom that kidnappers explicitly asked to be paid in bitcoin. The perpetrators asked for a sum of 1.5 bitcoin to release the hostage, later lowering the ransom to 0.5 bitcoin. The family of the victim finally was unable to gather the ransom money. Venezuelan Citizen Abducted, Bitcoin Ransom Demanded A Venezuelan citizen identified as Gustavo Torres González was murdered yesterday when his family failed to gather ransom money that kidnappers requested be paid in bitcoin. Torres was abducted on August....
A 32-year-old Brazilian woman was recently rescued by the Civil Police on the east side of São Paulo, Brazil. The woman, married to a bitcoin businessman, was kidnapped in Florianopolis on Wednesday. The ransom was demanded in bitcoin and another unnamed cryptocurrency, according to local publication Diário Catarinense. The kidnappers approached the victim right after she dropped her daughter off at school, 50 meters away from where she lives. While on their way to the city, they kidnappers contacted the victim’s husband demanding the ransom, sending him a video of victim in which she said....
Two different kidnappings in two different parts of the world have taken the world of illicit Bitcoin activities to a new level. Long discussed as the currency of the Silk Road, the online drug marketplace only accessible via Tor, it appears a new, more violent criminal is turning towards the digital currency to get away with kidnapping. The most recent example, the kidnapping of a Hong Kong tycoon once charged with fraud, Wong Kwan. The kidnappers threatened to scrape out the eyeballs or chop off the legs of the Pearl Oriental Oil chairman if his family did not cough up a HK$70 million....