BITCON

A KIDNAPPING of two expats foiled by Spanish police last year is linked to an enormous crypto currency scandal set to rock the country, the Olive Press can reveal.

The incredible drama which saw the couple held for several hours took place after hundreds of investors feared they had lost as much as €70 million in the ‘crypto scam’.

The snatching of Russian Pavel Sidirov and his wife in June was initially treated by police as routine extortion, as we reported at the time.

The couple had been kidnapped outside their villa in El Campello, Alicante, by two bogus cops flashing fake Guardia Civil badges and a Russian woman acting as an interpreter. They were bundled into a car, stripped and the wife was tied up and used as a hostage.

The gang then threatened both their lives if they did not hand over the codes to a crypto wallet containing millions.

Tech guru Sidirov cleverly bought time by telling the gang that the codes were distributed in 12 separate houses that they would have to go to individually to fetch. And in one of them - with his wife still bound and gagged in the boot of the carSidirov was able to

EXCLUSIVE: Kidnap, crypto and the Russians: The multimillioneuro scandal that may have defrauded hundreds in Spain

By Walter Finch

call his lawyer for help.

The lawyer alerted the police, who were quickly on the scene to catch the kidnappers. Police arrested six people, including a retired Guardia Civil officer, while the alleged ringleader, Carlos Garrido (pictured), handed himself in in the ensuing days to deny he was a criminal.

Scheme

Insisting he wasn’t a criminal, he claimed the scheme was a minor matter and he was merely representing a group of investors trying to recover €2 million ‘owed to them’ by Sidirov. While it seemed to be the end of the matter, the Olive Press can reveal today that the kidnapping is just a small part of a much bigger scandal that is set to engulf the already beleaguered crypto industry.

The kidnapping is linked to a Gibral- tar-linked crypto firm that has become immersed in a murky world of trading failures. According to well placed sources, hundreds of frantic investors are now scrambling to recover their funds from the trading platform Globix, which at its peak had almost €150 million under management.

Over the last few months it has gradually become clear to investors, based in Gibraltar and Spain, that Globix has allegedly lost as much as two thirds of this enormous sum.

And in a bizarre twist, the Olive Press can reveal that the remaining €40 million is apparently in the hands of a shady IT firm based in Ukraine.

It happened after Sidirov activated a mechanism during his kidnap that sent the codes to Globix’s partners in Kyiv.

An independent investigation by a well known Gibraltar financial company told investors they had been struggling to get any money back from Ukraine.

It added the CEO of the Kyiv-based firm had ‘not been forthcoming’ in his efforts to return the money and was ‘now under arrest’.

A statement issued to investors in January, seen by the Olive Press, reads: “The police have been contacted, as has the Ministry (of Finance) and collectively we are hopeful that they will ensure the process is completed satisfactorily.”

It added: “We have the Ukrainian special police involved and they have arrested three individuals. They are looking for a fourth individual. These people hold the data that is needed to facilitate the final transfer.”

While this has been hard to independently verify, Globix’ website has not been functioning since November, when a statement was put up reading: ‘We will not be taking on any more accounts’.

When contacted by the Olive Press for comment, the alleged boss of Globix dismissed all the allegations against him and his company as ‘lies’. The Gibraltarian, who lists himself on LinkedIn as a ‘crypto mining broker’, said: “I’m not allowed to speak about that at the moment. Sorry.”

He added: “Basically someone is shit stirring and if you have any evidence send it to me. On top of that it’s still ‘secreto sumario’ at Alicante court so you should talk to the court.”

According to his CV he attended the

Tambov University, in Russia, before setting up ‘a crypto mining farm in Russia in conjunction with a Russian team’.

Opinion Page 6

It was due to be passed last night on the eve of International Women’s Day today and will be ratified by congress next month.

All publicly-traded companies, or those with over 250 employees, must comply by July next year. Although many firms on the Ibex-35 already meet the quota, several fall short.

Childcare cash

A JUDGE has calculated the value of a stay-athome mum during 25 years of marriage; some €204,000.

It comes from the cost of paying for childcare and housework and was calculated during a separation hearing in Malaga.

The couple had got married under the separacion de bienes regime, which means that if they were to split, each would only have a right to their own assets.

This left the wife entitled to just half of a property she shared with her wealthy husband, who had amassed luxury assets over the years. The judge calculated the cost of raising their two daughters and ordered the husband to cough up.

See our International Women’s Day pullout inside

Healthy figure

MEDICAL negligence claims in the Valencia region last year fell by 4.5% to 963 compared to 2021, according to the Health Ombudsman.

Salty bathing

TORREVIEJA council wants to create a swimming area at the city’s salt lake as part of plans to set up a tourist centre in empty buildings on the site.

Keeping track

A network of buoys and sensors to monitor the state of the Mar Menor lagoon will be installed at six sites. The €1.5 million system will be operational in the summer of 2024.

Cruel cut

A patient has demanded €67,600 from the Murcian Health Service after his penis was cut by six centimetres when an operation to cure erectile pain went wrong.

British Nazi Extremist Pleads Guilty

A RACIST British extremist who lived between Alicante and Marbella has admitted he shared a stash of terrorist documents on social media.

Kristofer Kearney, 38, confirmed to the Old Bailey that he had shared the files that encouraged far-right terror attacks.

Known as ‘Charlie Big Potatoes’, the Liverpool man was extradited from Spain in September.

As well as sharing the manifestos of nazi killers Anders Breivik and Brenton Tar- rant, who killed 128 people between them, he ran a social media site called ‘Fascist Fitness’ out of Spain. The Olive Press monitored him for a year, as he travelled between a villa in Albir, in Alicante, and Marbella.