CryptoPay Mail Bomb Suspect Stands Trial in Sweden For Threatening Politicians

The CryptoPay Mail Bomb Suspect, Stands Trial in Sweden

The Suspect of a mail explosive sent to a cryptocurrency firm stood for trial on the 29th of August 2018. The suspect was accused of attempted murder among other charges.

The Michael Salonen Trial For Attempted Murder

A 42 years old man, Michael Salonen, stood trial for his criminal act on the 29th of August 2018. He was arrested in May after returning to Sweden from Thailand. He is charged with attempted murder and threat to life along with four other accomplices.

A year ago, Michael sent a bomb note to George Basiladze and Dmitrii Guniashov, both an employee at CryptoPay, a London based cryptocurrency firm. The note was sent under the pseudonym of accountant cloud.

The letter was opened by the CEO of the firm, Wesley Rashid. Fortunately, the explosive device failed, and nobody was injured. The reason for this action could not be ascertained because it defies the trend of cryptocurrency hack, ransomware and related cases.

The Charge Of Threat To Lives

While Michael sent an explosive letter to a foreign cryptocurrency firm in London, he also embarked on sending death threat letters to significant government personalities and top echelon individual in Sweden.

Out of a list of 26 victims of his death threat list, 21 are cabinet ministers, which include the Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist, Social Affairs Minister Annika Strandhäll, Education Minister Gustav Fridolin, and Justice, Interior Minister Morgan Johansson among others.

Michael's victims all received a letter with the content words “you will soon be dead,” and also a powdered substance which investigation shows later to be harmless.

The Evidence Of Micheal's Act

Tailing Micheal's criminal act was made possible through the information on his computer that shows he holds a CryptoPay account and his browsing history shows his search for processes of creating an explosive.

APNews stated that he had made an attempt at changing the password of his account with CryptoPay and was rejected. This occurrence does not seem like a case that would have warranted an explosive letter.

Michael Salonen’s Role Against The Norm

The trending criminal acts in the cryptocurrency space are ransomware attack for the cryptocurrency, hacking of wallets, exchange hack, mining malware among others.

All these acts are perpetrated by the mastermind purposely to get cryptocurrency, but Michael’s action shows no specific interest in getting cryptocurrency in return.

The reason(s) for his acts is still shrouded in secrecy, even as he was arraigned before the court on the 29th of August.