Three of the victims of Friday’s kidnapping have been found, but the “primary subject” remains missing. 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 three victims, a man and two women, were found Saturday afternoon in good health, the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) said in a press release. The search to locate the “primary subject” of the kidnapping is still ongoing.
The quadruple kidnapping took place around 4 a.m. Friday morning in the east of the Ville-Marie district. 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 Service (SPL) confirms that a burned vehicle was found in Laval-sur-le-Lac, in the west of the city, at the corner of Les Plaines and Les Rues. Maples.
Kevin Mirshahi had been implicated in a fraudulent cryptocurrency case in 2021. The young man had told La Presse that his residence had been placed under “increased surveillance” by the police following death threats from angry investors.
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 the 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 allegedly praised the MRS by claiming that its value would experience meteoric growth. Nearly 2,000 investors, some of whom were minors, had then invested heavily in this new cryptocurrency.
The idyll was only short-lived since, in mid-April 2021, a major investor of unknown identity sold 10% of the currencies in a single night, allowing him to pocket a large profit, but causing a fall suddenly the value of the MRS. 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.
