Toronto crypto company CEO kidnapped, held for $1M ransom before being released

The head of a company specializing in cryptocurrency was kidnapped and held for ransom in downtown Toronto during rush hour Wednesday. 

Police were called about a kidnapping in the area of University Avenue and Richmond Street W. just before 6 p.m., says a spokesperson with the Toronto Police Service. 

The suspects forced the victim into a vehicle and made a demand for money, the spokesperson said. 

The man was later located in Centennial Park in Etobicoke uninjured.

CBC Toronto has learned the victim is Dean Skurka, the president and CEO of Toronto-based financial firm WonderFi. He was released after a ransom of $1 million was paid electronically, a source close to the investigation said. 

Skurka told CBC Toronto via email on Thursday that he had been involved in an "incident" Wednesday but is safe.

"The safety and security of all of WonderFi's employees are paramount," Skurka said in the email.  "Client funds and data remain safe, and were not impacted by this incident."

Police say the investigation is ongoing and have not released any further details. 

 Cryptocurrency ripe target for theft: expert  

Jameson Lopp, the co-founder and chief security officer of Casa, a security firm focused on protecting cryptocurrency users, has been keeping track of physical thefts designed to steal cryptocurrency for around a decade.

He says Skurka's abduction is the 171st instance of suspects using physical violence to steal bitcoins, that he's aware of.

The rates of these kind of incidents tends to correlate with the exchange rate of bitcoin, he said. 

"As the price goes up, more awareness of the space permeates throughout society and as a result, more criminally minded people decide they want to try to figure out what the ROI of executing a physical attack against a known crypto holder is."

The price of bitcoin hit a new high Wednesday, climbing above $75,000 US and smashing its previous record set in March. 

The nature of cryptocurrency can make physical thefts and/or extortion of users more appealing to criminals versus other types of theft like robbing a bank, Lopp said. 

"They [cryptocurrencies] are incredibly easy to transport, incredibly easy to take possession of from someone in comparison to a bank or an armoured truck," he said. 

"The average crypto person, even early adopters who may be multi-millionaires, tend not to have really great physical security, and often they don't have great operational security or privacy."

The victims in the majority of these crimes are average citizens, he said. 

"This particular incident is not something that many people have to worry about unless they're a high profile figure," Lopp said. 

"But you know, what I see in the space, is even a lot of high profile figures, I would say, do not have the level of security and privacy that they should to be commensurate with their risk profile."

The alleged kidnapping happened the same day WonderFi released its third quarter earnings results, showing a 153 per cent increase compared to its third quarter in 2023.