Last week a Swedish Man was sentenced to a term of 7 years for trying to murder two employees of CryptoPay, a UK-based entity involved in the Crypto Wallet business.
On 8 March, Cryptopay co-founder Wesley Rashid inadvertently avoided opening a soft package. In fact, this package was addressed to 2 of his staff members, George Basiladze and Dmitrii Guniashov. However, something about this package did not seem right to Rashid, his instinct was right.
The Mysterious Package
This unsuspecting package apparently had two pipe bombs in it. Further, these were designed to explode when opened from either side. The intensity of these bombs could have even killed Rashid or whomever opened it. Fortunately for CryptoPay, this courier reached one of its unmanned offices and stayed there for over 5 months.
The British authorities had analyzed the DNA samples from the package, but when they failed to find a suitable match in Britain, they turned to the Interpol. Consequently, they found the DNA sample to match with that of Salonen, a 43-year old unhappy Swedish customer of Cryptopay.
What was the motive?
The Met Police, whom investigated the case, claimed that detectives could “only identify one possible reason” for his actions. He had emailed the company, Cryptopay, in August 2017, to ask that he be sent a new password, however Cryptopay refused, saying this contravened its privacy policy.
The Arrest
Earlier in May 2018 the London Metropolitan Police arrested Salonen at Stockholm Arlanda Airport for allegedly sending fatal bombs to the employees of Cryptopay. After his arrest, Salonen went through trial, until the 9th November 2018 when he was reportedly sentenced to a 7-year term.
According to Commander Clarke Jarrett, Head of the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command, these bombs reportedly did not detonate as it was ripped open from the middle. So, had Rashid opened it from the side, it could have killed him or at least caused serious injuries.
To get to the crux of the matter, the authorities further investigated to understand Salonen’s motive. Unfortunately, there seems to be no clear connection except for the fact that Cryptopay had denied a Password Change request from Salonen in accordance with their internal security policies.
It has been reported that Salonen had earlier allegedly sent packages containing white powder with a threat note to 20 Government officials in Sweden. However, according to Sweden’s Security Service, this powder was harmless.