Two Detained in Estonia for $575 Million Cryptocurrency Scam
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Deceived People of Estonia
Ivan Turgin and Sergei Potapenko, both 37, deceived victims into investing in a phony cryptocurrency bank named Polybius Bank that did not pay out returns to shareholders by setting up fictitious equipment rental agreements for a HashFlare cryptocurrency mining business. According to court filings, the scams deceived hundreds of thousands of individuals.
HashFlare purportedly generated $550 million in profits between 2015 and 2019. It was operational during that time. According to reports, the bitcoin mining hardware only used 1% of the promised CPU capacity to process transactions.
Procedure of Crypto Scam
Kenneth A. Polite, Jr., Assistant Attorney General from the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, stated that the defendants attempted to hide their sick wealth in Estonian homes, expensive automobiles, bank balances, and digital money wallets worldwide. Authorities in the United States and Estonia are attempting to acquire and repress these assets and remove the proceeds of these crimes.
The statement claims that the money laundering plan encompassed thousands of bitcoin mining equipment, six luxury automobiles, and 75 homes.
