A Venezuelan merchant was kidnapped, and later killed, after his family failed in collecting a ransom. The kidnappers asked for bitcoin payment. To release the hostage, the perpetrators demanded a ransom of 1.5 bitcoin. Later, the ransom was lowered to 0.5 bitcoin. The ransom money was not collected by the victim’s family.

Venezuelan Citizen Abducted, Bitcoin Ransom Demanded

A Venezuelan citizen named Gustavo Torres Gonzalez was abducted yesterday by his family after they failed to collect ransom money. The kidnappers demanded that the ransom be paid in bitcoin. Torres was abducted on August 10 when he was presumably heading home in the Zulia state, according to police. According to , the kidnappers communicated quickly with Torres’ family. They asked for 1.5 bitcoin to free him. His family was unable to raise the funds and managed to negotiate with the kidnappers to reduce the ransom to just 0.5 bitcoin.

But, this was too much for his family to afford, and they only managed to get 0. 062 bitcoin ($2,750). Torres’ corpse was later discovered with six gunshot wounds on a local highway on August 11.

There is no apparent relationship with Crypto

Although the kidnappers stated that they would only accept ransom money in bitcoins, Torres has no apparent connection to cryptocurrencies. Tutonet Investments, a local ISP Internet company, was owned by Torres. It is not clear if the Venezuelan citizen was involved in cryptocurrency mining operations or if he received cryptocurrency payments for his services.

The popularity of cryptocurrency in the country has caused an increase in scams and crime using these new assets. Because of their unique design, cryptocurrencies can be more difficult than traditional fiat money to track. Statistics show that cryptocurrencies are used to commit crimes, but not fiat money.

This is not the first instance of a crime such as this. William Creighton, founder of an online gambling site called 5Dimes, was also kidnapped in Costa Rica in September 2018. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of $5million dollars in bitcoin. However, his family was able to only pay $1 million. One year later, his body was discovered in a nearby cemetery and buried under a named tombstone.

What are your thoughts on this tragic story? Is bitcoin to blame for such violent crimes as this? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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