Body found in Montreal park identified as cryptocurrency influencer

The body of a man that was found in a park in Montreal's Ahunstic-Cartierville borough last month has been identified.

Provincial police (SQ) confirmed it was 24-year-old Kevin Mirshahi, a cryptocurrency influencer. 

The SQ did not release further details about the case, but said their investigation is ongoing. His death is being investigated as Montreal's 32nd homicide of 2024. 

The body was found by a passerby at the l’Île-de-la-Visitation nature park at around 10 a.m. on Oct. 30. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

He was reportedly one of four people who were kidnapped from a condo building in Old Montreal last June.

A source told CTV News at the time that a torched vehicle that was found hours later in Laval was possibly connected to the kidnapping.

Police later found three of the four missing people, but one was still outstanding.

Woman faces first-degree murder charge

Police arrested and charged a woman in connection with his death last August. Joanie Lepage, 32, is facing charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping.

According to a warrant for her arrest, police believe Mirshahi was killed on the day of the kidnapping, June 21.

Lepage is also accused of being an accessory after the fact to the murder, and faces charges for the other three kidnappings. Her next court date is scheduled for Dec. 4. 

Public records show that Mirshahi was the subject of an investigation by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the regulatory body that oversees the financial sector in Quebec.

In 2021, the AMF's administrative tribunal issued a blocking order "prohibiting the exercise of any activity as a broker or investment advisor" and orders "prohibiting transactions in securities," for Mirshahi, two other individuals, and a company. The order was imposed "in the public interest" for 12 months and renewed again on July 4, 2024, for another year.

The 2021 tribunal decision described Mirshahi as the owner and operator "of a private paid Telegram group called Crypto Paradise Island."

As part of the decision, Mirshahi and the other defendants were banned from "carrying out any brokerage or investment advisor activities, including any promotion or canvassing in connection with the MRS, directly or indirectly, via the Internet or otherwise, in particular on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram."