A retired doctor in the U.K. has been cleared of charges he tried to hire the Chechen mob to kill his financial advisor after suffering financial losses.
Dr. David Crichton was accused of going to a site called “Chechen Mob” on the “deep web” and selecting a “Kill the B*****d” option for some $5,000 in bitcoin. Crichton said he was depressed and in despair after losing a significant portion of his pension due to tax issues, and blamed his advisor, Andrew Bolden (country regulators found the advisor had done nothing wrong). Crichton, 64, said he went to the site to “clear his head,” and had no intention of actually going through with paying for the service.
He was however found guilty of three malicious communications charges relating to two text messages and a telephone call to Bolden, in which, the prosecution said, the defendant had threatened to kill himself, according to a report in The Guardian.