A customer of a London-based blockchain company sent a letter bomb to its employees just because the firm had refused a request for a password reset.
The Chilling Incident
In a scary case that has come to light, a man has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison for sending a homemade bomb to a Bitcoin firm in London. Thankfully, no one was hurt by the potentially lethal device, reports the BBC.
The perpetrator by the name Jermu Michael Salonen and aged 43 was found to be a Swedish national. The Stockholm District Court has sentenced him to six and a half years prison term.
Multiple charges were slapped on Salonen including sending white powder to Swedish lawmakers in 2017. One of the recipients happened to be the Swedish Prime Minister.
The Reason Behind the Episode
Law enforcement agency which conducted the investigation found a queer motive behind the action.
The man who apparently was a customer of Cryptopay had sent mail to the firm in August 2017 requesting them to reset his password. The company, citing their privacy policy, had refused to service the request.
Salonen reportedly sent a padded enveloped with the device to an office in Hackney. The office belonged to accountancy firm which had been previously used by Cryptopay.
While the package was delivered in November 2017, it was only on March 8th, 2018 that an employee at the office tried opening it. The worker, however, became suspicious of the contents and did not proceed further.
Good Luck or Providence?
“We are relieved that no one from The Accountancy Cloud team was hurt in this incident. None of our employees have ever worked at that address,” said a spokesman for Cryptopay.
The spokesperson further stated, “The vast majority of our employees work remotely across Europe, but we are implementing additional security measures to prevent any potential harm to our employees anyway,” adding, “We are thankful for both British and Swedish police, who were able to investigate the case with outstanding professionalism.”
“It was due to sheer luck that the recipient ripped opened the package in the middle rather than using the envelope flap which would have activated the device,” said Commander Clarke Jarrett at the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command.
It is reported that DNA found on the envelope did not match with anyone on the UK database and the information was passed onto Interpol.
“Through these inquiries, it was identified that the DNA matched those of Salonen, who was known to Swedish authorities,” said the Met police.
An investigation by Swedish agencies led them to the residence of Salonen where they found many bomb components.
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