The body of crypto influencer Kevin Mirshahi, who was abducted from a Montreal condo in June, was found in a park on Oct. 30, Montreal police confirmed.
According to local reports, the body of Kevin Mirshahi, a crypto influencer who was abducted from a condo in June, has been discovered in a park in Montreal, Canada.
On October 30, local police informed The Gazette, a Montreal news outlet, that Mirshahi’s decomposing remains were discovered by a passerby at the Île-de-la-Visitation park.
“The body’s identity as Mirshahi was verified through an autopsy,” The Gazette reported on November 13.
At the time, The Gazette reported that the 25-year-old was last seen on June 21, when he and three others were abducted from a condo building in Montreal. The three additional abductees were able to escape.
The incident contributes to a concerning trend of abductions and assassinations of crypto executives and influencers, which are frequently motivated by the intention of stealing or recovering substantial sums of money.
According to reports, Dean Skurka, the CEO of Canadian-based WonderFi, was abducted last week and compelled to pay a $1 million ransom in exchange for his release.
The investigation conducted by Mirshahi is still ongoing. Nevertheless, The Gazette reported that in August, local law enforcement apprehended a 32-year-old woman named Joanie Lepage, who was subsequently charged with the first-degree murder of Mirshahi.
Mirshahi was a prominent figure in the Montreal crypto community, having previously owned and operated a private crypto investment firm known as “Crypto Paradise Island.”
It is unclear whether Lepage was an investor at Crypto Paradise Island; however, X user “Bibi” alleged that he had been defrauded by Mirshahi, and others also associated Mirshahi with the term “scammer.”
Mirshahi was also recognized by the investment regulator of Québec, which prohibited him and two other individuals from engaging in the profession of broker or investment adviser in 2021 or shortly thereafter.
Additionally, he was directed to cease publishing content on social media platforms that were pertinent to the matter.
On July 4, about two weeks after Mirshahi was abducted, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers extended that prohibition.
In July of this year, four suspects were apprehended for allegedly seizing and murdering a 29-year-old foreign national Bitcoiner in Kyiv, Ukraine, and robbing him of $170,000 in Bitcoin.
A few weeks later in August, six Malaysian nationals were arrested on charges of detaining a Chinese national and demanding a ransom of $1 million in Tether, a stablecoin.