Vyacheslav Taran, 53, died after his helicopter crashed in good weather near the resort town of Villefranche-sur-Mer after taking off from Lausanne in Switzerland. Taran is the third such crypto entrepreneur to die unexpectedly over the past few weeks.
Before Taran's death, 30-year-old Tiantian Kullander died "in his sleep." And right before that, 29-year-old Nikolai Mushegian drowned on a Puerto Rico beach not long after tweeting that he feared he might be murdered by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its Israeli counterpart, Mossad.
What is further strange about Taran's death is that another passenger who was supposed to be on the helicopter canceled at the last minute. That, coupled with the fact that it plunged to the ground in good clear weather strongly suggests foul play.
Taran was the co-founder of trading and investment platform Libertex and Forex Club. His pilot, a 35-year-old man who was also killed, is said to have been very experienced in flying the single-engine H130 helicopter.
A deputy public prosecutor from Nice, France, visited the scene and reported that a third party being involved in the crash cannot be ruled out.
At least five crypto tycoons have died under mysterious circumstances since 2018
In years prior, several other crypto gurus died as well under mysterious circumstances. Their names were Gerald Cotten and Matthew Mellon, both of whom died without sharing the keys to crypto wallets worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The death of Cotten was so controversial and mysterious that someone produced a documentary on Netflix about it. There is belief among some that the whole thing was faked as part of a bigger crypto scam.
"The odd circumstances surrounding his untimely death also included the fact that he signed a will just nine days before his demise – fueling suspicions that Cotten, CEO of Canada's largest crypto exchange, faked the whole thing," reports said.
"To this day, $169 million is missing, prompting investigators and victims to question whether he orchestrated the mystery and pocketed the funds. Some investors have even demanded his body be exhumed to prove it's really him."
As for Mellon, the ex-husband of Jimmy Choo co-founder Tamara Mellon, he supposedly suffered from an unexpected heart attack while preparing to check into a drug rehabilitation clinic in Mexico.
If both Cotten and Mellon really died as claimed, then that makes at least five crypto top dogs who are no longer with us since 2018.
Concerning Kullander, he was the co-founder of Amber Group, a crypto trading platform that was recently valued at $3 billion. On November 23, Kullander "unexpectedly died in his sleep," according to an announcement from the company.
Based in Singapore, the Amber Group called Kullander "instrumental to the founding of Amber and a pillar of our success." The company did not, however, reveal where Kullander allegedly passed away.
"He put his heart and soul into the company, in every stage of its growth," a company announcement further stated.
Kullander also used to trade with both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
Back to Mellon, the guy once told Forbes that the world of crypto is "scary and dark," and that it is "anti-America." He held hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Ripple (XRP), which he claimed is "pro-America, pro-business and pro-bank."
"Something weird has happened to all his crypto money and his family can't find it," read a post-death statement from Mellon's family.
Crypto-based finance continues to suffer massive blows amid an impending economic crash. To keep up with the latest, visit CurrencyCrash.news.
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