It began like a scene from a Hollywood heist.
Dressed in painters’ overalls and high-vis vests, a group of men slipped into the stairwell of an apartment building in the Old Town of Estonia’s capital, Tallinn. Their target was Australian tech billionaire Tim Heath, a pioneer of crypto-based online gambling and founder of the Yolo Group. But this wasn’t a robbery – the men were there to take Heath.
Crypto billionaire Tim Heath was the victim of an attempted abduction in Estonia. Credit: Yolo Group
According to Estonian prosecutors, the gang had stalked Heath for months, even planting a GPS tracker on his car. When they struck on July 29 last year – just days before the grand opening of Heath’s luxury casino complex – he fought back. Shaken but defiant, the strong-framed Heath escaped. The assailants fled, abandoning a getaway van later traced via a Bolt rental account.
His case is far from an anomaly – it’s part of a growing pattern of violent crime targeting crypto’s elite. Across Europe and beyond, crypto-related kidnappings are on the rise.
The incidents are co-ordinated, brutal and laser-focused on extracting digital wealth that is easy to move and potentially difficult to trace.
This month in Paris, three masked men ambushed the daughter of Pierre Noizat, chief executive of French exchange Paymium, in broad daylight. The attackers tried to shove her into a van but fled after a struggle. Though she escaped, the message was chillingly clear: prominent crypto families are now public targets.
Just weeks earlier, a 60-year-old crypto marketing firm owner was kidnapped by armed men in Paris. They cut off one of his fingers and demanded up to €6 million in ransom. He was rescued in a police raid south of the city.
In January, Ledger co-founder David
Read More