Four foreigners arrested over 8m crypto heist in Phuket
Quartet charged with tying up Ukrainian in hotel room and forcing him to hand over millions in Tether digital tokens
Phuket police have arrested four foreigners – two Ukrainians, one Armenian and a Russian – for allegedly robbing a Ukrainian tourist of 8.5 million baht in Tether (USDT) cryptocurrency.
The four suspects were arrested at 1am on Monday at the Palm Inn Hotel in Phang Nga’s Takua Pa district after their alleged victim Viacheslav Leibov, 23, filed a complaint with the Kamala police station in Phuket on Sunday.
The four suspects were identified as Armenian national Arman Grigoryan, 21, Ukrainians Alfred Chernyshuk (19) and Ruslan Musalev (22) and Russian Miraz Atoian (21).
They were charged with robbery with weapons and unlawful detention.
Leibov alleges that Chernyshuk invited him to his Phuket hotel room at 10.45pm on Friday night, where he found Grigoryan also present.
Leibov told police that when he went to use the toilet, two masked men hiding inside overpowered him and bound his arms and legs with ropes and cable ties. He said Grigoryan then threatened to break his finger with a hammer unless he transferred digital currency worth half a million US dollars to the gang. Grigoryan was wielding a hammer while one of the masked men was holding a long knife, he said.
Leibov said he managed to negotiate the ransom price down to half the original sum. After he transferred 8.5 million baht in digital currency, the robbers tied him to a bed, packed their belongings and left the hotel room.
He told police that he eventually managed to struggle free, before checking with the hotel that Chernyshuk and Grigoyan had rented the room.
He said he then raced to Phuket airport on his motorcycle in a bid to catch the robbers. After failing to find them, he filed the complaint on Sunday.
Police said one of the suspects regularly purchased USDT from Leibov and targeted him in the knowledge he was holding large quantities of the cryptocurrency.
The owner of the hotel where the alleged robbery took place told One 31 TV station that he witnessed Leibov being tied up by masked men but thought they were filming YouTube content as he heard no sounds of struggle.
