Authorities in Ukraine and Russia have confirmed the kidnapping of a managing director of a cryptocurrency exchange called EXMO. The exchange a few days after the kidnap experienced a DDoS attack.
According to Strana.ua, Pavel Lerner, 40, who is an IT expert and managing director at one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange called EXMO, was kidnapped on the Dec 26 in Kiev, Ukraine after a group of armed men in balaclavas dragged him into a black Mercedes-Benz near his work place.
EXMO finance which is a US based cryptocurrency exchange with operations in India, Russia, Spain, Thailand, Lithuania, US and Singapore confirmed the incident and assured that company operations were not affected.
"We are doing everything possible to speed up the search of Pavel Lerner. Any information regarding his whereabouts is very much appreciated," PR-department of EXMO said.
The company went on to add that Lerner did not have access to any cryptocurrency account or other personal account, assuring users of their funds.
"Despite the situation, the exchange is working as usual. We also want to stress that nature of Pavel'd job at EXMO doesn't assume access either to storages or any personal data of users. all users are absolutely safe."
DDoS Attack:
Two days after the kidnapping of Lerner, EXMO tweeted that its servers were under DDoS attacks and thus, its website was experiencing a down time.
"EXMO is under the DDoS attack. The site will be available within an hour. We apologize for the temporary inconvenience. sincerely, The EXMO Team,"
EXMO is under the DDoS attack.
The site will be available within half an hour.
We apologize for the temporary inconvenience.
Sincerely, The EXMO Team — EXMO (@Exmo_com) December 28, 2017
New update: Pavel has been released after paying a ransom of $1 million to the kidnappers. Click here to read.
However, it wont be the first time that someone has been abducted due to his involvement with cryptocurrency. Some weeks ago, a man in New York was abducted at gun point and then forced to give his pass key to his Ethereum cryptocurrency (Bitcoins rival) and as a result, $1.8 million worth of Ethereum were stolen from his wallet.