The founder of a cryptocurrency platform was found shot to death in an alley outside the Fairmont Hotel on the eve of his company’s annual board meeting Tuesday night with the words “HELD ACCOUNTABLE” written in thick marker onto a dumpster just above his body.
Edwin Lin, 38, ran a digital currency platform that collapsed, evaporating the fortunes of its investors and the platform’s users and leaving many penniless. Lin was under federal investigation at the time of his death because of the platform’s collapse.
Lin was the second of Pittsburgh’s elite to die by gunfire after being “doxxed” by a digital activist and then pilloried in public after the allegations against him became public. Dr. Juan Colon, a pharmaceutical company CEO, was found shot to death in his suburban home last month.
Police haven’t confirmed that the two killings are related, though they’re investigating them as if they are. Lin’s family decried the activist, who goes by the moniker “NO/ONE,” for inciting violence that led to Lin’s death.
“My son Edwin was not only an entrepreneur, but a leader in the community whose philanthropic efforts were the true reflection of what he valued in life,” Lin’s father said, through his family attorney. “The grief we, as a family, are experiencing over the loss of our son is immeasurable and we most certainly believe that the lies spewed by this so-called ‘activist’ cost Edward his life.”
Lieutenant Thomas McGarrity, at an overnight press conference, said there were no calls of gunfire in the area and said that someone would have eventually found Lin, even if not the kitchen staff who called 911. He, and others at the press conference, wouldn’t say whether the graffiti was related.
McGarrity is a supervisor in the police department’s investigations branch. McGarrity wouldn’t say whether detectives believed there was a connection to Colon’s death in Squirrel Hill North earlier this year.
“Because of the possible connection to Mr. Colon’s murder last month, even if only through the ‘activist,’ this is a high priority case for us,” McGarrity said. “We’re exploring all options. We don’t have any solid motive yet. But we’re exploring many leads.”
A kitchen staff member taking out garbage found Lin facedown and called police, and officers found him dead with gunshot wounds to his torso, according to police sources. His body lay as police found it into the morning Wednesday, guarded by patrol officers who stood near crime scene tape at the mouth of the alley and told passersby it was just part of a movie set.
About an hour after the first officers arrived, police department brass who learned of Lin’s identity pushed back onlookers after seeing a reporter take a photo of the words on the dumpster. At the overnight press conference, police wouldn’t comment on the graffiti.
Law enforcement sources believe the two murders are connected, and said shell casings of the same caliber were found at both scenes, though testing hasn’t yet shown whether they were fired from the same gun.
Both Lin and Colon, in materials released by the activist, were linked by the materials to wrongdoing in their industries that preyed upon people with no power in society. Lin was accused of billions-of-dollars of fraud and Colon accused of running tortuous medical experiments on inmates who did not know and couldn’t have consented to the experiments even if they had.
‘ACCOUNTABILITY’
At the overnight press conference, reporters repeatedly asked McGarrity about the graffiti found above Lin’s body, but McGarrity would not comment on whether it was related to Lin’s death.
“I’m not saying it’s related – I’m very clearly not saying the graffiti is related – but even if it was there is no room in our society for vigilantes. That’s not justice, that’s lawlessness,” he said.
A photo of the graffiti, taken by an Edge News reporter, circulated on social media before most reporters had made it to the scene and police had pushed everyone back by then. Another tag, in the same color, appeared next to it: ROE. By the time police released the scene Wednesday morning, the dumpster was gone and the alley had been cleaned; police wouldn’t say whether the “ROE” tag and the “HELD ACCOUNTABLE” tag were related.
Lin was a polarizing local figure before his death. He donated much of his fortune to political causes on both sides of the aisle, giving money to Republicans who championed lower taxes and diminished federal oversight and Democrats who championed socially liberal causes. He also spread his fortunes among local politicos and their pet projects, funding parks and block parties in each of Pittsburgh’s nine city council districts.
Some wondered if he aspired to public office himself; people who tracked his seemingly impossible success found him a financial wunderkind who was a refreshing outsider, though many city political observers described Lin as someone who was “tolerated” more than “welcomed” despite his financial contributions to candidates.
“Look, I’ll give you the plain facts of it. Nobody sent him,” said one veteran city hall observer quoted in a profile of Lin last year. “He’s buying his way into the boy’s club. Everyone wants his money so they grip and grin. But the money only goes so far. So we’ll see.”
Lin’s company’s board of directors were meeting this week to discuss the company’s fate and large protests were expected outside the hotel. Lin founded the company but had publicly feuded with its board since the collapse and the company laid off most of its non-technical staff.