Exmo

Russian founder, operations in Russia, and a "paper" exit from the market

EXMO was founded in 2014 by Romanian Ivan Petukhovskyi and Russian Eduard Bark, both of whom lived in Kyiv at the time. Before the full-scale invasion, the exchange openly operated in Russia — helping citizens of the aggressor country buy and sell cryptocurrency. After February 24, 2022, EXMO announced its "exit" from Russia: the Russian-language service was sold to a Kazakh developer, and Bark transferred his share to CEO Serhii Zhdanov. However, observers called this exit only on paper. In December 2020, EXMO experienced a large-scale cyberattack — hackers stole about 10% of all the company's assets. In 2022, a leak of personal data of over 2,500 exchange users appeared on the darknet.

Kidnapping of CEO in Kyiv — $2 million ransom in bitcoins and a "Russian trace"

On December 26, 2017, armed attackers in balaclavas kidnapped EXMO's CEO Pavlo Lerner near his office in Kyiv. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in exchange for Lerner's freedom, 102 bitcoins were paid — about $2 million at that time. Two days after the kidnapping, the EXMO exchange suffered a DDoS attack. The crime's organizers were never found — Lerner suspected involvement of international organized crime, possibly from Russia, which the Ministry of Internal Affairs cannot reach due to "political differences."