According to recent reports, two Estonians have been arrested and are being deported to the US because of cheating thousands of people into giving up about $575 million with a crypto Ponzi scheme. Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin along with 4 co-conspirators whose names are still unknown planned this scheme. Read the entire article to learn more about this news piece.
Statements given by officials
“New technology has made it easier for bad actors to take advantage of innocent victims—both in the U.S. and abroad—in increasingly complex scams,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The department is committed to preventing the public from losing more of their hard-earned money to these scams and will not allow these defendants, or others like them, to keep the fruits of their crimes.”
“The size and scope of the alleged scheme are truly astounding. These defendants capitalized on both the allure of cryptocurrency and the mystery surrounding cryptocurrency mining, to commit an enormous Ponzi scheme,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown of the Western District of Washington. “They lured investors with false representations and then paid early investors off with money from those who invested later. They tried to hide their ill-gotten gain in Estonian properties, luxury cars, and bank accounts, and virtual currency wallets around the world. U.S. and Estonian authorities are working to seize and restrain these assets and take the profit out of these crimes.”
“Mr. Potapenko and Mr. Turõgin are charged with defrauding investors out of more than half a billion dollars,” said Richard A. Collodi, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office. “Ultimately, their elaborate Ponzi scheme fell apart and they conspired to conceal and launder the money which they took from the victims of their scheme. Thanks to our partnership with the Estonian authorities, the two defendants will answer for the massive fraud they are accused of perpetrating.”
About the conspirators
Potapenko and Turõgin, the conspirators, are currently facing charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and 16 counts of wire fraud. The people who have suffered because of their cheating, the FBI is trying to help them. It is asking people who transacted with HashFlare to fill out a form with information on how much money they spent with the company. Although the agency is not promising the victims anything about them getting that money back, they are doing the best they can and the government has worked to get some money back for victims of other scams so there is a little hope that these victims might get some of their money back.
