A famous Russian cryptocurrency expert abducted in Kyiv
On December 26, Russian programmer Pavel Lerner, a professional in blockchain-mining technologies was abducted in Kyiv. Witnesses who knew him reported to the police that the 40-year-old Lerner was kidnapped by unknown suspects wearing black masks.
Lerner is a noted expert in blockchains, which are encrypted lists of digital currency transactions. He moved to Spain with his family in 2014 but he also has a residence permit to live in Poland. Most recently, Lerner has been participating in a number of start-ups in Ukraine that are linked to blockchains, crypto currencies and data mining.
Lerner stopped responding to calls in the middle of Tuesday, December 26. That evening, his acquaintances filed an abduction report at the Obolonskyi District Police Department in Kyiv.
In their filing, Lerner’s friends stated that he had been kidnapped not far from an office center at Stepana Bandery Avenue where he worked. Dark-clad people, their faces covered with balaclavas, forcibly pulled him into a Mercedes-Benz Vito car with stolen plates and then sped away.
Kyiv Police confirmed the information about the abduction of a man in the Obolonskyi district of the city but, according to a police press-secretary, personal information about the man and his identity were being withheld from the public. The police have opened a formal criminal investigation.