By Rob Harris
London: An international crime gang posing as tradesmen launched a failed attempt to kidnap a billionaire Australian online gaming mogul in the Estonian capital of Tallinn in July, a court has heard.
The daring attack was carried out by foreign nationals who had travelled to Estonia to abduct Tim Heath, an early adopter of Bitcoin who made his fortune through founding gambling brands that accepted cryptocurrency including Bitcasino.io and Sportsbet.io.
Australian Tim Heath has an estimated worth of $2.27 billion.Credit: Yolo Group
Investigative newspaper Eesti Ekspress reported the men had posed as painter-decorators, wore high-vis vests and entered the stairwell of an Old Town apartment building where Heath lives. They then “beat up” the Australian, but he was able to fight them off as they attempted to drag him to a hire van.
Heath, 46, is internationally known for founding Yolo Group which holds over 100 stakes in companies related to gaming or fintech. The AFR Rich List this year estimated the low-key venture capitalist and tech founder’s wealth at $2.27 billion.
Estonian authorities believe the July 29 attempting kidnapping was meticulously planned for several months, with the attackers having gathered information about Heath, his work, home and movements with hope of extracting a large ransom. A tracking device was secretly installed on his vehicle, the court heard.
The foiled plot only came to light for the first time this week during a bail hearing involving one of the suspects, Georgian citizen Ilgar Mamedov, who had been held in custody since he was extradited from Lithuania to Estonia late last month.
The attack occurred just 10 days before the opening of the Bombay Club, Heath’s $100 million casino and luxury hotel complex for high rollers, which features gaming rooms, guest rooms, cigar lounges, restaurants and other facilities. The building is located on the same street as his Tallinn home.
It was reported that Heath was not present at the August opening of his casino, which had surprised some guests. A source close to Heath told this masthead he now is no longer in Estonia, nor Australia.
Based in Estonia’s tech-savvy capital for about 20 years, his companies employ more than 1000 people across 13 countries in places such as Ukraine, Brazil, Argentina, Malta, and the Philippines. His cryptocurrency-based online casinos and sports betting platforms have been shirt sponsors of several English Premier League football teams including Watford, Arsenal and Newcastle United.
The court reportedly heard the alleged attackers had bought equipment from a hardware store days before and planned to take their victim to a remote hideout, around 65 kilometres from Tallinn.
The gang had rented a sauna house on a property via Airbnb - which was fitted with security cameras and used a Bolt rental car, giving Estonian authorities a trail to help retrace their movements.
The publication said the district prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Lauri Jogi, told the court there was an ongoing investigation into the plot, while confirming none of the alleged members were Estonian citizens. It is unclear how many people have been apprehended.
Jogi said the motive was likely financial and the number of people involved, or their roles, remained unclear.
Mamedov, reportedly in his 30s, was caught in Lithuania. Because his passport was left in the hired van, and he had no other documents, he was initially kept in a refugee camp.
He denies any wrongdoing and was not granted bail. He told the court he had no idea about the kidnapping, and said he’d “just met some men who promised to take him to Poland”.
Heath, born in rural Warracknabeal, about 340 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, went to Scotch College and graduated from the University of Melbourne with an IT and commerce degree in 2002.
While he has few business interests in his home country, he has become one of the most prolific individual Australian investors, spreading his wealth across around 100 startups and early-stage companies, including fintech firms, blockchain-related companies and gambling industry service providers globally.
A spokeswoman for Heath’s Yolo Group told this masthead: “The event in question is a personal matter and Yolo Group’s business operations remain entirely unaffected. The founder has no involvement in day-to-day company operations.”
Last week The Australian reported fast-growing social betting business, part-owned by Heath, Tabcorp and other investors, was exploring a stockmarket listing, potentially on the NASDAQ in the United States, as it targets a quadrupling of its revenue by 2027.
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