A 21-year-old Ukrainian student was tortured and burned alive in Vienna after attackers forced him to reveal passwords to his crypto wallets, emptying his digital accounts before setting him on fire in his father’s Mercedes.
According to local reports, two suspects, a fellow student aged 19 and a 45-year-old Ukrainian national, fled to their home country with large amounts of cash but were arrested days later by Ukrainian authorities.
The victim, Danylo K., was the son of Kharkiv’s deputy mayor. His body was discovered on November 26 in a burned-out vehicle on Marlen-Haushofer-Weg in Vienna’s Donaustadt district after fire alarms alerted residents to the blaze around 12:30 a.m.
The charred remains were found in the back seat of a Mercedes S 350D bearing Ukrainian license plates beneath the Ostbahn railway line.
Source: oe24Torture Began in Hotel Garage, Ended in Flames
The attack started hours earlier in the underground parking garage of the Sofitel “SO/Vienna” hotel on Praterstraße, where the 19-year-old suspect ambushed his fellow student following a loud confrontation.
A hotel guest alerted reception after hearing the altercation, prompting police to be notified.
Passersby later noticed a large pool of blood in the stairwell leading to the parking area.
Source: KroneInvestigators say Danylo was beaten severely in the garage before being forced into his father’s black Mercedes.
The assailants drove him to the Donaustadt location while subjecting him to extended torture to extract his crypto wallet passwords.
His teeth were knocked out during the assault as the violence escalated over several hours.
After gaining access to two crypto accounts, the attackers doused Danylo with gasoline purchased earlier from a Wagramer Strasse station.
Source: KroneHe was set ablaze while crouched in the back seat, suffocating on his own blood and dying from head injuries and burns that consumed 80 percent of his body.
Colonel Gerhard Winkler of the State Criminal Police Office confirmed the autopsy findings indicated suffocation or heatstroke as the decisive factors. Forensic teams recovered a melted gasoline canister from the vehicle.
International Manhunt Tracked Suspects to Ukraine
Vienna police identified both suspects through surveillance footage captured at the hotel garage and the gas station where they purchased fuel canisters.
The pair crossed into Ukraine at precisely 9:07 a.m. the morning after the murder, triggering an international manhunt.
Ukrainian authorities arrested the suspects on November 29 after finding them in possession of enormous amounts of U.S. dollar bills.
Investigators believe the crypto was rapidly converted to cash following the robbery.
Austrian officials have transferred the case to Ukrainian jurisdiction, as extradition is not possible under existing agreements between the countries.
Police confirmed that Danylo’s crypto accounts were completely emptied after his murder, though authorities declined to specify the total sum stolen.
His family in Ukraine had reported him missing on November 25 after losing contact with him and discovering his digital wallets had been drained.
The wealthy student, who had been living temporarily in a luxurious apartment in Vienna’s Triiiple Tower on Landstrasse’s Danube Canal, was residing with his partner and their child at the time of his death.
Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov declined to offer a detailed comment but acknowledged the tragedy, saying, “This is a human tragedy,” while noting the loss remained a family matter for his deputy.
Deputy Mayor of Kharkiv. | UANewsPhysical Crypto Crimes on The Rise
The murder marks Austria’s entry into a fast-escalating pattern of violent attacks targeting cryptocurrency holders worldwide.
Security researcher Jameson Lopp has documented over 60 such “wrench attacks” in 2025, representing a 169% surge since February and a 33% increase over all of 2024.
France leads global incidents with 14 confirmed cases, while violent robberies have been reported across Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom this year.
Last week, a British Columbia court detailed a 2024 home invasion where attackers tortured a family and stole $1.6 million in crypto after demanding 200 Bitcoin.
Similar patterns emerged in an Oxford robbery where masked assailants forced victims to transfer £1.1 million in crypto during a car ambush.
Analysts attribute the surge to rising crypto values, which have made holders high-value targets for criminals.
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