YouTube blogger stole about $213 million in cryptocurrencies and ended up in prison
-
Altcoin News
Bitcoin news
Blockchain News
blog
DeFi News
Exchange News
General
Market News
Prediction
Без рубрики
Johny Smith
2024/12/07
3 mins read
South Korean police have uncovered a cryptocurrency scam that affected more than 15 thousand people. The main suspect was a YouTube blogger with 620 thousand subscribers, who organized an investment scam involving 28 types of digital assets, including both well-known tokens and virtually untraded virtual currencies. During the period from December 2021 to March 2023, he and his accomplices “earned” about 325.6 billion Korean won (approximately $213 million), promising investors huge profits.
The suspects used aggressive advertising and telephone calls to attract investors. They assured that investments would bring up to 20-fold profit and offered to buy tokens by selling real estate and taking out loans. The main targets were middle-aged and older people who were willing to risk significant amounts in the hope of large profits. In some cases, investors have sold their apartments to invest in cryptocurrency.
During the investigation, it turned out that scammers artificially raised the cost of “their” tokens, manipulating prices on international exchanges through the purchase and subsequent sale of cryptocurrencies. Digital currencies had extremely low liquidity and no real value. Some victims, having lost money on previous investments, again fell for promises of compensation for losses using “promising coins.”
Police also uncovered a scam involving fake business cards and fake phone numbers. The scammers presented themselves as employees of financial organizations and demanded documents for “damage compensation.” This data was used to issue loans in the victims’ names. As a result, the victims suffered additional losses.
Police analyzed more than 1.44 thousand bank accounts and traced cash flows leading to foreign offshore companies, including Hong Kong and Singapore. The leader of the group was detained in Australia. 22 were confiscated from him Bitcoin (BTC)and property worth about 47.8 billion Korean won (about $32 million) was frozen. In addition, several accomplices were arrested.
Error in the text? Select it with the mouse and click Ctrl + Enter
33