Family of missing American businessman ‘paid kidnap gang in Bitcoin’

A group of 12 alleged kidnappers has been arrested over the disappearance of an American man after his family claim they paid a £738,000 ransom in Bitcoin.

Police in Costa Rica and Spain launched a joint operation after businessman William Sean Creighton Kopko, 43, went missing in Costa Rica in September.

He has still not been located.

Three people, said to be the alleged ringleaders, were arrested in Zaragoza, Spain.

Spanish media reports they fled Costa Rica after the victim’s family paid the ransom.

The other nine were arrested in Costa Rica.

Suspects

Q Costa Rica identified one of the three suspects by his surnames Morales Vega, 25.

The other two were named as his 45-year-old mother (Vega Aguirre) and his girlfriend (Solis Chaves).

Walter Espinoza, director of the Costa Rican Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ), said Morales went from Panama to El Salvador and then to Cuba.

He spent about a month there before flying to Spain.

Espinoza said: “The OIJ with its experts managed to establish that one of the members of the organisation had access to the (Bitcoin) wallets and had connected from a home in Moravia, to where we tracked the IP address and specified the location.

“We are interested in finding indications that allow us to identify the fate or whereabouts of the foreigner whose freedom was deprived and to locate him in any way possible.”

The OIJ said Morales has extensive knowledge about Bitcoin.