================================================================================================ CASE 026 | Maxsim Latsoka & Anna Nikurina | January 15, 2018 | Thailand ================================================================================================ DATABASE RECORD id 26 date January 15, 2018 original_date January 15, 2018 year 2018 month 1 quarter 2018-Q1 victim Maxsim Latsoka & Anna Nikurina location Phuket, Thailand country Thailand scenario Home Invasion description Russian gang steals 100,000 Euros in BTC from young Russian couple kidnappings 1 violence_torture 0 drugs_alcohol 0 weapons 0 theft 1 life_taken 0 money_wanted 100,000 Euros coin_type BTC, iPhone X, their iPad, Macbook Pro as well as their credit cards and passports. reports AseanNow notes posed as interpol agents has_processed_date 1 created_at 2025-11-13 05:44:45 (flag legend: 'kidnappings' is the DETENTION flag — 1 when the victim was held against their will at any point, tied, locked in, held at gunpoint or taken away; it is NOT the same as the 'Kidnapping' scenario, which means taken away and held. See README, Definitions.) AI SUMMARY [generated at bulk import, NOT verified against sources] **Victim:** Maxsim Latsoka & Anna Nikurina **Attackers:** Gang of 10 perpetrators **Attack Method:** Home Invasion - victim kidnapped **Violence Used:** Threats/intimidation **Crypto Stolen:** 100,000 Euros in BTC, iPhone X, their iPad, Macbook Pro as well as their credit cards and passports. **Status:** Investigation ongoing LINKED SOURCES [url] https://aseannow.com/topic/1020825-russian-gang-steal-bitcoin-worth-millions-from-young-russian-couple-in-phuket-condo-extortion/ NOTES ON THIS FILE * matched to sheet row 27: exact match on victim + year, unique on both sides ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ARTICLE 1 Source AseanNow URL https://aseannow.com/topic/1020825-russian-gang-steal-bitcoin-worth-millions-from-young-russian-couple-in-phuket-condo-extortion/ Origin reported_K&R sheet, row 27, column "Articles" Length 1,534 chars ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Russian gang steal Bitcoin worth millions from young Russian couple in Phuket condo extortion A Russian couple have gone to Thai police to say that compatriots posing initially as Interpol had entered their condominium and forced them to give passwords before stealing nearly 4 million baht in Bitcoin. Maxsim Latsoka, 23, and Anna Nikurina, 28, were returning home on Monday at 10pm and as they entered their fourth floor condo room in Muang district they were bundled into the room by two Russian men. The men said they were Interpol from Russia investigating Bitcoin irregularities. The men put a hood over Maxim and wrapped a towel around the head of his girlfriend before another Russian man came into the bedroom. He ordered them to give the password of their computer notebook then the password of their Bitcoin account. If they didn't they were told they would be injected with drugs and handed over to the Thai police The gang were in the room for a total of five hours, reported Thai Rath. They managed to get 100,000 Euros in Bitcoin emptying the account. Then they fled with the notebook warning the couple they would be back to carry out their threats if they went to the Thai police. A Thai forensics team were at the condo yesterday. The Russian couple initially were scared to report the theft but a friend who is a volunteer policeman persuaded them that it was better to report it. Thai police said that they have information that the gang have fled to Malaysia. Arrest warrants are being prepared. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ARTICLE 2 Source AseanNow URL (no URL recorded for this column) Origin reported_K&R sheet, row 27, column "Article 2" Length 4,182 chars ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Couple are Robbed of $100,000 in Bitcoin While in Thailand A Russian couple who were on holiday in Thailand were robbed of approximately $100,000 in Bitcoin according to local news. They were staying at a condo on a beach when the attack took place. The Russian couple were staying on Lago Naiharn Beach in Phuket when they were robbed on the 15th of January. The robbery was reported to the Chalong police station two days afterwards. The victims were Maxim Lastovka and his partner Anna Nikulina. Thankfully for the couple, they were luckily assisted by a Russian tourist official at the police station. Hand over the Private Keys According to the report, the couple came back to their home at about 10pm local time. The condo was located on the 4th floor of the apartment unit in the Mueang district of Phuket. The suspects, who were also Russian, posed as Interpol agents and forced themselves into the unit. Once inside the apartment, they covered the head of Lastovka and took him to a private room. They were held inside the apartment for 6 hours and the suspects threatened that they would kill Mr Lastovka if he did not give them what they were after. They threatened to inject the couple with a poisonous substance. What they were after was the passwords to his laptops and the private key to his Bitcoin wallets. Once Mr Lastovka gave them the information that they required, they asked him to send the Bitcoin to their own address. The criminals not only got away with over $100,000 of his Bitcoin but they also stole the couple’s iPhone X, their iPad, Macbook Pro as well as their credit cards and passports. They also threatened to come back to the couple if they went to the police. Bandits Got Away Victims Bitcoin Theft Thailand The unfortunate victims with Police – Source: thephuketnews.com Given that they threatened to return to the couple if they went to the police, the couple delayed reporting the crime. Hence, the thieves were able to make some headway on the authorities before police began the chase. The stolen iPhone X had tracking turned on and as such, allowed the police to determine where the criminals were escaping to. They first noted that the phone went through a province on the mainland of Thailand before heading into Western Malaysia. Exactly how the thieves knew that the man had a sizable investment in Bitcoin is not entirely certain. It appears that they were a Russian criminal gang that was tracking the couple. Mr Lastovka had said that he recognised one of the members hanging around the apartment earlier. The Thai police had issued an international arrest warrant for the criminals and had already contacted their counterparts in Malaysia to alert them of where the iPhone was last tracked. A Familiar Trend When most people think of Bitcoin thefts, they will think of hackers who will take off with their Bitcoin using only digital means. However, as this case illustrates, plain vanilla criminals are more than willing to use old tactics to extort their loot. Indeed, this is not the first time that this has occurred. There were recently reports of a man in New York who was robbed at gunpoint for Bitcoin as well as an news of a Russian exchange operator who was kidnapped in Ukraine. There are many things that you can do, however, to protect yourself from these sorts of robberies. Firstly, always make sure that you do not let anyone know how much Bitcoin you have. This is one of the ways thieves can easily spot their victims. Secondly, it may also make sense to hide your Bitcoin among numerous different devices and wallets. Have the really large amounts in cold paper storage that is kept in a safe deposit box. You may also want to make use of a hardware wallet that you can hide in numerous places. These give you the ability to create numerous different accounts as well. Hence, you can store a smaller amount in one account and only let the criminals know about this account. Of course, there are many of the normal precautions that you can take in order to make sure you don't fall victim. Always watch your back, be suspicious of your surroundings and if need be, get protection of some sort. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FETCHED ARTICLE 1 [AUTO-TRIMMED — UNREVIEWED] !! Furniture was cut by a script keyed on this case's record, not by a person. !! It may still carry passages about OTHER cases from a round-up article. !! The full page extract is kept in staging/ if a cut needs revisiting. Source aseannow.com URL https://aseannow.com/topic/1020825-russian-gang-steal-bitcoin-worth-millions-from-young-russian-couple-in-phuket-condo-extortion/ Field url Retrieved 2026-09-05T12:56:14+00:00 via raw HTTP retrieval, deterministic extraction (HTTP 200) Language unknown Kept paragraphs headline [0] + 68-92 of 95 Length 1,119 chars Integrity sha256 f5452da89471954f78a13903cae1f6648b0097cbaf2a5ff9cf33d4373f24b024 Trimmed AUTO-TRIMMED, unreviewed: kept paragraphs 68-92 plus headline [0]; dropped 67 leading and 2 trailing paragraphs. Case-term hits on page: 2 (WEAK anchor, confirm the page is about this case). Caveat retrieved from a live page on the date above. Unlike text copied from the spreadsheet, there is no second copy to hash it against. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ORIGINAL (unknown, verbatim as retrieved) Russian gang steal Bitcoin worth millions from young Russian couple in Phuket condo extortion - Phuket News - ASEAN NOW A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen. Tap Add in the top-right corner. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app. Confirm by tapping Install. No registered users viewing this page. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar. Tap Permissions → Notifications. Adjust your preference. Click the padlock icon in the address bar. Select Site settings. Find Notifications and adjust your preference. Ensure the site is installed via Add to Home Screen. Open Settings App → Notifications. Find your app name and adjust your preference. Go to Safari → Preferences. Click the Websites tab. Select Notifications in the sidebar. Find this website and adjust your preference. Tap Permissions. Click Permissions for this site. Go to Settings → Site permissions. Tap Notifications. Find this site in the list and adjust your preference. ================================================================================================ generated from attacks-export-Gart-website.json + reported_K&R | case 026 ================================================================================================