If Liam Neeson wasn't retiring from action movies, then this story about a billionaire fighting off would-be kidnappers would be right up his alley. An Australian billionaire refused to go silently into the night as they say.
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Instead, he opened up his dormant John Wick skills on some kidnappers who tried to abduct him at his apartment in Estonia. The kidnappers tried to grab cryptocurrency gambling magnate Tim Heath in Estonia's capital of Tallinn. But Heath refused. The incident happened in July but just surfaced recently.
Heath said the men disguised themselves as painters and wore hi-vis vests. They attacked the billionaire and planned to abduct him.
"It was only after a second-tier Tallinn Circuit Court hearing concerning one of the suspects, Georgian citizen Ilgar Mamedov, who had been held in custody since the attack and was requesting release, that the paper learned of the kidnapping attempt — which was fortunately foiled as the target was able to fight off his assailants once they had pounced," ERR News reported.
It continued, "The criminals had reportedly bought equipment they thought they needed from a hardware store days before and planned to take their victim to a remote hideout in the Kakerdaja bog, around 40 miles from Tallinn."
Billionaire Fights Back
The kidnappers had rented an Airbnb property. They also used a Bolt rental car. All of this made it very easy for authorities to track them down and arrest them. I guess we're not dealing with master-level criminals here. Dr. Evil would be sad.
At the time, Heath was planning to open his $100 million Bombay Club in the country. It's a casino for those with a lot of cash, featuring cigar lounges as well as places to eat and drink. At the time, we do not know if it was related to that. The exact motive for the kidnapping remains unknown.
Heath found a fortune after starting an online poker website in 2013 called Bitcasino.io. He later founded Yolo Group, a group of online betting platforms. He became a self-made billionaire. Heath resides in Estonia.
At this time, we do not know the extent of the kidnapping ring. But things didn't go to plan.
