Kidnappers demand cryptocurrency for Norway businessman's wife

Kidnappers demand cryptocurrency for Norway businessman's wife
January 9, 2019 - 17:21 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The wife of a Norwegian multi-millionaire businessman has been missing for months after being abducted, police have now confirmed, according to the BBC.

Anne-Elisabeth Falkevik Hagen, 68, disappeared from her home near Oslo on 31 October.

The investigation has been continuing since then, police said, but was given "a low profile" because "very serious threats have been made".

The kidnappers have demanded €9m ($10m; £8m), Norwegian media report.

Broadcaster NRK said the ransom had been demanded in an equivalent amount of the cryptocurrency Monero - a digital currency similar to Bitcoin.

Mrs Hagen is married to Tom Hagen, a businessman with an estimated fortune of 1.7bn Norwegian krone (€174m; £156m) made in the real estate and energy industries.

Norway's financial magazine Kapital named him 172nd on its list of the country's wealthiest people.

NRK says the couple live a "secluded lifestyle" in Lorenskog, east of Oslo, describing Tom Hagen as "media-shy and private".

There has been no evidence since she disappeared that Mrs Hagen is safe, police say.

Related links:
Vedomosti.ru: В Норвегии за похищенную супругу миллионера потребовали выкуп в криптовалюте
BBC. Norway businessman's wife kidnapped for ransom
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