The Australian crypto billionaire Tim Heath narrowly escaped an attempt to kidnap the Estonia last year by biting part of the attacker’s index, heard an Estonian court.
Heath, a longtime cryptographic investor, was attacked by two men pretending to be painters in the stairwell of his building in July of last year. There have been an increasing number of crypto kidnappings in 2025, forcing managers to strengthen security.
One of the attackers, the national in Azerbaijani Allahverdi Allahverdiyev – a former boxer and wrestler – tried to silence Heath by placing a hand on his mouth, reported the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday, citing the Estonian media Eestonian.
The attackers plotted to force Heath in a van, but Heath bit the index of the attacker and managed to free himself, looking for a sanctuary in his apartment, an Estonian court learned.
Heath would have lost a tooth in the 30 -second struggle. The attackers fled shortly after, abandoning the van nearby. Part of the finger was found later in the street 100 meters from the attack scene.
Originally from Victoria, Australia, Heath founded the Yolo group based in the Estonian and its venture capital Yolo Investments, which invests massively in Fintech, crypto and Igaming. The list rich in Australian Financial Review estimates Heath’s net value at 2.46 billion Australian dollars ($ 1.61 billion)
The plot was months in manufacturing
The group of seven kidnappers would have tracked Heath at the head of the assault, both in person and using a GPS tracker on his vehicle, said Sydney Morning Herald.
The group would have entered Estonia using forged Georgian passports and would have spent the days before the attack on painters and other articles in hardware stores so that they can pretend to be workers.
It is alleged that the plan consisted in transporting Heath to a sauna house rented nearby and forcing it to transfer to its cryptographic operations. A pirate would also have been recruited to help.
Apart from Allahverdiyev, the Georgian citizen Ilgar Mamedov was also arrested. The two men are tried in Estonia. Two others are wanted by the police, including the alleged organizer, Najaf Najafli, while three have not yet been identified.
The accused claims innocence
Allahverdiyev told court that he had been promised at 100,000 euros ($ 118,000) for the kidnapping, but “only pretended to do something” and said to all those involved to interrupt the plan, according to Sydney Morning Herald.
Prosecutors allege that Mamedov was the flight driver. However, he denies his participation and affirms that he came to Estonia by accident during his trips to the region and that all the allegations it was involved are a “lie” and “a manufacture”.
The threat could still be underway
Prosecutors also claim that a few weeks after the defaulting kidnapping plot, Heath received a message via Telegram with photos from his apartment and a 30 Bitcoin (BTC) request worth around $ 3.3 million at the time.
In relation: Tiktok Crypto Trader released after the kidnappers realized that he was broken
When Heath did not respond, the kidnappers made no other attempt to contact, but the prosecutors argue that the threat could be in progress.
Heath would have spent more than $ 3.1 million for private security since the attack and moved houses. His legal team seeks to reimburse the costs of his new security by the accused kidnappers.
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