According to reports, Australian human rights activist Drew Pavlou, a vocal critic of China’s Communist Party, alleges that the CCP has placed a bitcoin bounty on his family members. In emails seen by media, an entity called “DP Bounty Hunters” offered $50,000 in Bitcoin to “terminate” Pavlou’s mother Vanessa, inviting recipients to provide their Bitcoin address to “receive remuneration.” The emails were sent to major shopping centers in Brisbane, Australia to target Vanessa’s employer.
While this most recent bounty singled out Pavlou’s mother, he claims other family members have also been threatened in the past. The bounty emails were first highlighted by the Australian news program 60 Minutes. Although sent anonymously via hard-to-trace ProtonMail addresses, Pavlou asserts he traced the emails to a mercenary working on behalf of the Chinese government. If Pavlou’s allegations prove accurate, this would represent the latest instance of China’s ruling Communist Party utilizing intimidation tactics and Bitcoin to silence overseas critics and dissidents.
Pavlou admitted he cannot confirm for certain the CCP itself sent the bounty email, but believes it likely came from a CCP supporter with tacit approval, representing increased efforts to intimidate overseas critics. While the direct source is uncertain, Pavlou sees the threats as part of China’s campaign to terrorize dissenters abroad.
Pavlou has gained notoriety protesting China’s government, including disrupting the Chinese Ambassador’s speech in Australia in 2022. He claims repeated harassment by authorities and public condemnation by Deputy Director-General Zhao Lijian.
According to William Nee of the human rights NGO China Human Rights Defenders, the CCP often targets activists’ families, since dissidents may withstand personal consequences but not risk to loved ones.
Nee views this Bitcoin bounty scheme as more psychological intimidation than a viable assassination plan. By threatening activists’ relatives, the CCP sows fear to silence critics worldwide through coercive tactics like this Bitcoin-funded bounty.
According to Elementus CEO Max Galka, cryptocurrency is frequently leveraged for illegal activities due to its borderless, frictionless nature that avoids barriers to traditional payments. While transparent, crypto transactions are pseudonymous – even if traced, identifying owners is difficult.
Mixers further obscure transactions, enabling funds to be pooled and shuffled to disguise the source. In 2022, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned mixer Tornado Cash for allegedly laundering over $7 billion in virtual currency.
Essentially, paying bounties in Bitcoin exploits its pseudonymous and easily-obscured nature, making payments challenging to conclusively trace. By utilizing cryptocurrency, threat actors can fund illicit activity like bounties while maintaining enough uncertainty regarding the source to enable plausible deniability.
