The ringleader of an arson attack on Ukraine-linked businesses in London last year discussed kidnapping Nikolay Storonsky, the co-founder of finance app Revolut, a British court heard on Thursday.
On the day he was arrested in April 2024, Dylan Earl communicated on Telegram with someone prosecutors said was a Wagner group handler known as "Lucky Strike", about the kidnap and extortion of Revolut boss Nikolay Storonsky. The Russian-born billionaire, who moved to the UAE about a year ago, is the world’s 209th-richest person with a net worth of about $14 billion, according to a Bloomberg index.
"Can you catch somebody and get him to transfer money to your accounts?" Lucky Strike wrote on Telegram before attaching the Wikipedia entry for Mr Storonsky, who co-founded the payments company in 2015.
"He is a billionaire so he will have a lot of security and systems to protect unauthorised payments," Earl replied. "But I will research more into this and see if it's possible."
Earl, 21, has already admitted aggravated arson over the blaze in 2024 which targeted companies delivering satellite equipment from Elon Musk's Starlink to Ukraine. It took eight crews, with 60 firefighters, to wrest control of the blaze, which caused about £1 million ($1.3 million) of damage.
Earl and five others are due to be sentenced on Friday after being convicted for their part in a plot to burn down warehouses on an industrial estate in east London on behalf of Russia's Wagner mercenary group.
The prosecution outlined the other incidents to the court at London's Old Bailey on Thursday to build its case for a long sentence for the arson attack and Earl's acknowledged part in another kidnap conspiracy, targeting Evgeny Chichvarkin, the wealthy owner of a restaurant and a high-profile critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He had also sought to pay a serving British soldier for intelligence, prosecutors said.
"Overall, Earl's actions constitute a sustained campaign of terrorism and sabotage on UK soil, carried out in support of a foreign power – the Russian Federation – and its war of aggression against Ukraine," prosecutor Duncan Penny said. He asserted Earl was well aware what he was doing was an “act of terrorism”.
Earl's lawyer Paul Hynes told the court his client was a "sad individual", a "Walter Mitty" character who had been groomed by "sophisticated" Wagner handlers.
He described Earl as an “easy puppet in the hands of others”, who sought “praise, importance and significance” and saw the world through the “prism of online gaming”.
Mr Hynes said: “He was for lengthy periods alone in his bedroom at his parents’ house and led a minimalistic existence taking drugs and gaming online.
“This is not a John le Carre novel. But nevertheless those who would wish the UK and other countries ill will continue to try to latch on to people like Mr Earl.”
While he accepted Earl had acted for a foreign power “with some enthusiasm” and put others in harm’s way, he said there was no evidence of an “underlying ideology” associated with “orthodox terrorism”.
The Kremlin has denied the accusations and its embassy in London has rejected any part in the warehouse fires.
Britain has repeatedly accused Moscow of orchestrating malign activity in Britain, with a group of Bulgarians convicted in March of spying on behalf of Russian intelligence.
On Thursday, police said they had arrested three men suspected of assisting Russia's intelligence service and warned the public against what it said was a mounting campaign by foreign intelligence services to recruit proxies in Britain.
