O P LIVE RESS The ANDALUCÍA 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 car - Sidirov was able to 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

Serious savings on currency transfers

Gender push

A NEW law will make it mandatory for corporate boards to be composed of at least 40% women.

Spain’s Parliament is set to introduce the ‘gender parity law’, which would see a similar quota set for the cabinet. 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.

Mind The Gap

EXCLUSIVE:

By Walter Finch

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 Gibraltar-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

DISPARITIES in pay between men and women in Andalucia vary by over 15% depending on province. While the gap is just 12.5% in Almeria, it rises to as much as 28.3% in Huelva.

And while the difference in salary in Malaga (19.8%) is close to the national average of 20.05% it means men make €20,003 per year, while women get €15,992. The most alarming statistic however, is that across Spain the pay gap appears to be widening, with the Gestha union claiming it grew by €120 between 2020 and 2021.

See our International Women’s Day pullout inside

Big milestone

AN Axarquia cave, Cueva de la Victoria in Rincon de la Victoria, has been included in the prestigious European Prehistoric Rock Art Trails itinerary.

Dog attack

A BRITISH woman, 67, died in Valencia after she was attacked by an abandoned dog on the roadside in the village of Macastre on Saturday.

On display

RONDA’s old museum of banditry has reopened, but has moved to El Borge. It boasts the largest collection in the world on the history of banditry, including books, weapons, engravings, newspapers and stamps.

Train vandals

GRAFFITI on Andalucian trains last year cost a total of €413,000. In addition to the cost, there were delays caused by the removal of the trains for their restoration.

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.