Florence Muchai
The body of Kevin Mirshahi, a crypto influencer who was abducted in June, has been found at Île-de-la-Visitation, Montreal’s Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough. The decomposing body turned up at the nature park on October 30. An autopsy confirmed the body’s identity as Mirshahi’s.
The 25-year-old was last seen on June 21 when he was taken from a condo building in Old Montreal. It is reported that he was abducted with three others. The other abductees, two women and one man were located by police hours later.
Details of Mirshashi’s death
On November 12, the Montreal Gazette reported that the body authorities found had been identified as the missing “crypto influencer” Kevin Mirshahi. Upon investigation, Canadian authorities have charged Joanie Lepage, 32, with the first-degree murder of Mirshahi and the abduction of Mirshahi and the three others.
Mirshahi was well-known in the Montreal crypto community. He owned and operated a private investment firm called Crypto Paradise Island, a paid-for Telegram group offering investment advice.
The Canadian AMF had put a ban on Mirshahi and Crypto Paradise on carrying out any activity as a broker or investment adviser. It also imposed additional bans on securities transactions and ordered the withdrawal of publications on social media.
Mirshahi was also ordered to stop posting related content on his social media.
Further reporting by Le Journal de Montréal indicates that despite the ban, he continued to run a Telegram group promoting digital assets investments with the name “Amir.”
The spike in pump-and-dump crypto schemes that have cost traders millions in investments has also spurred anger amongst certain traders. This has led some to take matters into their own hands in jurisdictions where crypto regulations are not clear or established.
Mirshahi’s business had probably impacted the wrong people. However, as of now, we can not tell if there was a connection between his business and his disappearance.
People have come out to say that Mirshahi was not one of the good guys, as others knew him as a scammer. One X user also claimed that they had been scammed by Mirshahi.
Crypto Paradise Island investigations
At the very start, Crypto Paradise was implicated in a scheme involving a token called Marsan ($MRS) that saw its 2,300 members – many between the ages of 16 and 20 – lose thousands of dollars.
Antoine Marsan and Bastien Francoeur founded Marsan Exchange, which launched the token on April 14, 2021. They paid Mirshahi with the token for promoting it.
Marsan peaked in value at 5.14 CAD ($3.67) three days after launch. However, on April 18, two large holders cashed out, and the value collapsed to $0.39. Since then, Mirshahi and his company have been under investigation by Quebec’s investment regulator, the Autorité des marchés Financiers (AMF).
Surge in violent crimes against crypto execs and developers
Digital assets investors who have lost money to scammers, whether via developers, promoters, or company execs, seem to have had enough. There was an announcement a week before Mirshahi’s abduction about another crypto-linked kidnapping in Toronto.
Dean Skurka, CEO of publicly listed digital asset holding company WonderFi, was forced into a car by assailants who then demanded a ransom of nearly $720,660. He was released after paying the money.
Outside Canada, there has also been an uptick in physical crimes involving crypto all over the world. A list maintained by the Chief Security Officer of Casa, Jameson Lopp, has recorded 18 attacks with links to the decentralized finance industry in 2024. Among them are cases of investors being lured by attackers under the pretense of doing in-person P2P trades, home invasions, and even murders.
A 29-year-old foreign national Bitcoiner in Kyiv, Ukraine, stole $170,000 worth of Bitcoin BTC. In August, six Malaysian nationals were charged with kidnapping a Chinese and demanding a ransom of $1 million worth of stablecoin Tether’s USDT.
There is still a huge gap in security in the growing decentralized market that can be filled in time. Crypto remains a dangerous and volatile field that requires not only a mind with investment knowledge but also street smarts.
