A 21-year-old Ukrainian student was brutally tortured and burned alive in Vienna in a horrific attack motivated by his father's cryptocurrency wealth, Austrian police have reported.
A Trap Set in a Luxury Hotel Car Park
The victim, Danilo Kuzmin, was a student in the Austrian capital. According to investigators, he was lured into a trap on November 25th in the underground parking garage of the luxury Sofitel Hotel. Police believe one of his attackers was a fellow Ukrainian student whom Danilo had confided in about his family's financial situation.
Danilo had revealed that his father, Sergey Kuzmin, the deputy mayor of Kharkiv in Ukraine, possessed significant cryptocurrency riches. This information allegedly became the motive for the gruesome crime.
Hours of Torture Followed by a Fiery End
Sinister CCTV footage reportedly shows several men surrounding Danilo in the car park. After being beaten, he was forced into the back seat of his family's Mercedes. He was then driven away and held in the vehicle for several hours while being tortured, until he finally revealed the access codes to his father's two crypto accounts.
The ordeal ended in the Donaustadt district of Vienna, where the car was intentionally set on fire with Danilo still inside. Emergency services discovered his body only after firefighters extinguished the flames. The autopsy revealed that approximately 80% of his body was burned and he had suffered massive blunt force trauma, including head injuries and broken teeth.
International Investigation and Arrests
Authorities were alerted after Danilo's family filed a missing persons report when he stopped answering his phone. The investigation quickly progressed. Police found a melted petrol canister in the car's back seat and traced it to a local station, where CCTV allegedly captured a suspect buying fuel before the killing.
Working with Europol, Ukrainian authorities tracked down and arrested two suspects—aged 19 and 45—in the port city of Odessa on November 29th, just three days after the body was found. The younger suspect is reported to have studied at the same university as Danilo.
Colonel Gerhard Winkler, head of Vienna's state criminal office, stated that investigators are assuming a financial motive and have ruled out any political background. Substantial sums are believed to have vanished from the family's cryptocurrency wallets around the time of the attack.
The suspects, both Ukrainian nationals, will not be extradited to Austria. Instead, Ukrainian officials are requesting to transfer the criminal proceedings to their jurisdiction. A court in Ukraine has ordered both men to be held in custody for 40 days.
Chilling Echoes of Other Crypto Crimes
This horrific murder bears a disturbing resemblance to other recent high-profile crimes linked to digital currency. In October, Russian crypto millionaire Roman Novak, 38, and his wife Anna, 37, were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in Dubai. Their dismembered bodies were discovered encased in concrete after alleged attackers found his cryptocurrency wallet empty.
The case of Danilo Kuzmin underscores the extreme dangers that can be associated with cryptocurrency wealth, attracting violent criminal attention with tragic consequences.
