TL;DR Breakdown
- FBI arrest 26 crypto ponzi operators in Israel.
- Fraudsters deceived Americans to invest in crypto and eloped with funds.
- Suspects begin trialed in court this week.
Federal Bureau of Investigation, alongside the Israeli Police, have arrested 26 suspected crypto Ponzi operators in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Local media in Israel reveals that the FBI and the Tel Aviv district fraud unit of the Israeli Police conducted an investigation on criminals who conned tens of millions of shekels from victims.
In the joint operation, both authorities arrested 26 people suspected to participating in money-laundering offenses related to digital forex trading.
According to the law enforcement authorities, they received a report from the US that a group of Israelis deceived people into investing in a fraudulent investment scheme with cryptocurrencies. Rather than delivering services, the suspects stole millions of dollars from the victims.
After investigation, the suspects were detained in an overnight operation with exhibits like digital storage devices and computers seized as proof of the investigation.
All the arrested suspects were residents of central Israel. Operatives, however, did not reveal their names nor the company they work for. The suspects would begin to appear at Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court this week. The victims of the fraud, on the other hand, are Americans.
More and more crypto fraudsters nabbed in the past
Over the past month, the media has been awash with reports of many crypto fraudsters nabbed for different crimes in the space.
One of the hottest topics in the digital asset space earlier this year was the notorious trading venue – Thodex. Around 400,000 users of the Turkish cryptocurrency exchange were left out of their accounts without being able to withdraw their funds. The platform’s website was down for several days, while reports suggested its CEO had fled the country with up to $2 billion.
62 people were picked concerning that, with six of them eventually landing in jail. The brother and the sister of the company’s CEO – Faruk Fatih Özer – were among them. The head of Thodex is still wanted as he remains on the loose.
