Wife of one of Norway's richest men kidnapped, 9 million euros worth of bitcoin ethereum and Monero demanded as ransom payment

The wife of one of Norway's richest disappeared
Anne-Elisabeth Falkevik Hagen is wanted by the police after having been missing from her home since October 31 last year. She is married to one of Norway's richest men.

After the VG has been informed, there has been a requirement for ransom - nine million euros in crypto currency - for the 68-year-old from Lørenskog in Akershus, who has disappeared for exactly ten weeks. The requirement, which corresponds to just over NOK 85 million, means that the police believe they are facing a kidnapping case.

PHOTO: TORE KRISTIANSEN
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According to VG's information, the ransom claim is set in the Monero crypto currency, which is known to offer non-traceable and anonymous transactions. In reality, this means that it is impossible to determine with certainty who is sending how much and to whom. These features have led Monero to attract many cyber criminals.

VG knows that it has been a form of online communication with those who pretend to be kidnappers, in the form of coded messages. However, the dialogue must have been limited. After the VG understands, this way of communicating on aroused great attention within the police.

Falkevik Hagen, originally from Gran at Hadeland, married 19-year-old with peers Tom Hagen. Together they have three adult children and several grandchildren.

Tom Hagen currently holds number 172 on the financial magazine Kapital's list of Norway's 400 richest. Hagen is active in the purchase and sale of electricity, in addition to property development. The estimated net wealth in 2018 was NOK 1.7 billion, according to Kapital.

After the VG is informed, the police believe that the motive for the supposed kidnapping is financial gain. When Falkevik Hagen disappeared at the end of October-November, nine million euros corresponded to just over NOK 85.5 million.

This autumn, Tom Hagen was involved in a lawsuit in the Borgarting Court of Appeal through the company Financial Funds, of which he is a part owner. Two employees in the brokerage house Pareto and a consultant for the Russian steel company Severstal are charged with fraud, financial infidelity and market manipulation after 12 investors sold its shares in the mining company Crew Gold Corporation via Pareto to Severstal for a price guarantee.

Later, Pareto bought shares on behalf of an apparently unknown buyer. Økokrim believes this buyer was Severstal and that the investors had thus been fooled. The garden and business partner Fredrik Daylemani Sneve have missed out on NOK 37 million, according to the charge.

This is a very interesting case for cryptocurrency and most likely is the highest profile kidnapping related to cryptocurrency, showing the world a more negative use case for the blockchain, but this story will no doubt educate many more people about cryptocurrency, like the "WannaCry" ransom-ware stories of last year did. This story is going to be one of those unfortunate marketing boons for crypto that spreads the name of bitcoin even on negative news, and I hope the best for this Norwegian Family.

( Thanks to @fyrstikken for showing me this interesting story on https://steemspeak.com DIscord )
https://e24.no/lov-og-rett/kona-til-en-av-norges-rikeste-forsvunnet/24536528