Pavel Lerner, chairman of the crypto exchange EXMO, was apparently abducted on Boxing Day in Ukraine. So he is said to have been captured and abducted shortly after leaving his Kiev office in the street. Since then he lacks every trace.
According to consistent international media reports, Russian citizen Pavel Lerner was forcibly overwhelmed and kidnapped on Tuesday in front of his office in Kiev. He was allegedly dragged into a black Mercedes-Benz by several men, who subsequently disappeared. The men were supposed to have worn storm masks and so could not have been identified. The Kiev police are said to have confirmed a kidnapping on that day, but has not yet announced whether the abducted person is actually Pavel Lerner.
Lerner, a blockchain expert known in the crypt scene, is the chairman of the EXMO Finance crypto exchange. An Exchange can trade Bitcoin, Dash, Ethereum and Litecoin against US Dollars, Euro, Russian Rubles, Polish Zloty and Ukrainian Hryvnia, among others. As a result, EXMO’s focus is clearly on the Eastern European market, as explained by the company’s headquarters in Kiev. However, the crypto exchange is officially registered in the United Kingdom.
In addition to the abduction of Chairman Pavel Lerner, the same day, there was also a distributed denial of server (DDoS) attack on the EXMO website, temporarily suspending the website and, accordingly, users’ access to the crypto exchange cut off from the net. However, a representative of EXMO told Russian and Ukrainian media that both events would not affect daily business. So for the customers and users there would be no difficulties.
About the exact circumstances and backgrounds of the deed is still unknown. However, it is obvious that the kidnapping is related to the learner’s work at EXMO. However, whether the kidnappers are concerned with claiming the highest possible ransom for the EXMO boss, or whether they intend to reach Wallet Private Keys via him, can not be clarified.
