Could be possible. CRP had a touch of fatalism but it's also possible he paid off what he thought were the right people and then, in classic Eastern European fashion, was ripped off. It was a fatal mistake for him to remain in Ukraine.
Uncle Ted would have immediately thrown Null's letter into the trash when he came across "I own and run Kiwi farms, a website...". Ted assassinated the owner of a computer store in California for facilitating the use of computers. Enabling the use of technology was anathema to Uncle Ted and a crime deserving of death.