(Montreal) Four people were kidnapped this Friday morning from a building in the Old Port. According to information obtained by La Presse, one of the people kidnapped is Kevin Mirshahi, a cryptocurrency enthusiast who was the target of threats following a fraudulent affair.
The Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) confirms that a quadruple kidnapping took place around 4 a.m. this morning in the east of the Ville-Marie borough. The police were dispatched to the scene following a 911 call mentioning a “conflict”.
Still according to our information, the four individuals were kidnapped in the underground parking lot of the building.
Witnesses then saw one or more vehicles leaving the scene at full speed. One or one of the suspect vehicles was found burned in Laval.
For its part, the Laval City Police Department (SPL) confirms that a burned-out vehicle was found in Laval-sur-le-Lac, west of the city, at the corner of Rue des Plaines and Rue des Érables.
An SPVM command post has been established around the Old Montreal building and investigators from the major crimes section are currently on site to learn more about the circumstances of this kidnapping.
In July 2021, Kevin Mirshahi was indicted by the Administrative Tribunal for Financial Markets (TMF) in a cryptocurrency case.
The influencer was then the head of a private group called Crypto Paradise. This group had helped promote on social networks a cryptocurrency, “MRS”, which a young Laval entrepreneur in his twenties, Antoine Marsan, had launched in February of the same year.
At that time, Kevin Mirshahi told La Presse that he had “brought other influencers” with him on this adventure in order to “create a kind of hype”.
The promotional campaign then allegedly praised MRS by claiming that its value would experience meteoric growth. Nearly 2,000 investors, some of whom were minors, had then bet massively on this new cryptocurrency.
Immediate cold shower for the thousands of investors who suddenly and collectively lost nearly $2 million.
But the problems don’t stop there. Neither the financing project nor the promotional campaign had been approved by the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) as required by the regulatory framework.
An investigation was then undertaken by the AMF, which subsequently obtained a blocking order from the TMF, prohibiting Mirshahi and Marsan from carrying out any activities as brokers or investment advisors, and banning securities transactions. . This order was later extended by the court and will end on July 4.
After the fiasco surrounding this cryptocurrency, Antoine Marsan and Kevin Mirshahi received hundreds of death threats from angry investors.
Kevin Mirshahi then explained to La Presse that his residence had been placed under “increased surveillance” by the police following the threats.