’Crypto King’ Kidnapper’s Guilty Plea Rocks Industry as Co-Defendants’ Trial Hits Legal Snags
Crypto's dark underbelly gets another courtroom spotlight as kidnapping conspirator folds under pressure.
Legal Limbo Deepens
While one perpetrator takes the guilty plea route, remaining defendants watch their day in court get pushed further into the calendar—proving even crypto crime moves at blockchain speed sometimes.
Industry Reckoning Continues
Another day, another reminder that not all crypto volatility happens on the charts. The sector's growing pains now include everything from regulatory scrutiny to kidnapping trials—because apparently traditional finance wasn't exciting enough for some.
Just when you thought crypto couldn't get more dramatic, the justice system delivers its own version of a hard fork.
Forced bankruptcy
The kidnapping came months after investors forced Pleterski into bankruptcy in August 2022 while trying to recover more than $40 million they'd given him for crypto and foreign exchange investments.
Pleterski himself faces fraud and money laundering charges related to investor funds, with a trial set for October 2026.
Baek pointed to Pleterski's abduction as one of several high-profile cases demonstrating how "these breadcrumbs translate into real danger," citing "the Bali case involving a Chinese couple whose posts preceded their deaths, and a U.S. influencer who was extorted soon after posting wallet screenshots."
"Oversharing doesn't just show off wealth—it outlines habits and vulnerabilities. To a motivated attacker, that's a roadmap," he said.
In November 2024, WonderFi Technologies CEO Dean Skurka was abducted amid a rise in crypto-related attacks across Canada, with a kidnappers demanding a $1 million CAD ransom that was paid electronically before he was found unharmed in Centennial Park, Etobicoke.
Last month, Keyron Moore received 13 years in prison for a 2022 Toronto-area kidnapping involving torture, sexual assault, and a $1 million Bitcoin demand from a victim identified as A.T., who was abducted outside a Thornhill plaza and confined in a Barrie garage.
Security researcher Jameson Lopp had earlier predicted that 2025 WOULD mark “an all-time high” for such attacks—now already exceeding 52 cases worldwide.
