Another Crypto Capital employee charged with fraud, conspiracy

Another Crypto Capital employee, an executive named Oz Yosef, was arraigned for bank fraud and conspiracy by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday.

Ill-fated cryptocurrency exchange and sister organization of stablecoin operator Tether, Bitfinex, has been in the news since April for allegedly covering up to eight hundred and fifty million dollars ($850 million).

However, on Friday, it became the case of a victimizer turning into the victim as the troubled company’s general counsel, Stuart Hoegner, denied money laundering charges and rather claimed the company to be the victim of the fraud operated by Crypto Capital – the payment partner handling its withdrawals and transactions.

Bitfinex alleges that Crypto Capital carried out an unfair distribution of their assets across multiple bank accounts, which have now been rendered frozen by the regulators in the US, UK, Poland, and Portugal, making it difficult to retrieve.

As a result, on Thursday, the Polish police put the first nail in the coffin by arresting the payment processing company’s head, Ivan Manuel Molina Lee, for reportedly being involved in money laundering and operating an international drug cartel. His arrest was connected to the loss of three hundred and fifty million dollars ($350 million), earlier seized by the Polish ministry.

Crypto Capital arrests continue

Following the latest arrest of the executive Yosef, it appears that there could be some truth to Bitfinex’s claims, after all. According to the official court documents, Yosef has been arrested on three counts – conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to operate unauthorized money transferring business.

A blatant act of conspiracy, in which Yosef purportedly texted an unnamed source to transfer ten million dollars ($10 million) to an offshore account in the Bahamas, despite knowing the fact that the transfer would be made from a bank located in New York, led to the police arresting in red-handed. 

Thus, Bitfinex’s claims, that the company entrusted its representations, including those by Yosef, to the Panama-based payment processor, that eventually turned out to be an alleged conspirator, have been proved correct to some extent.