Police in Brazil arrested members of a major crypto-investment scheme after a three-year-long investigation. The culprit company – Bitcoin Banco Group – has been working as a hidden investment fraud agency for quite some time, embezzling investors’ funds along the way.
Reports reveal that the company had defrauded more than 7000 investors out of $300 million (1.5 billion Brazilian reais). The head of the scheme Cláudio Oliveira, a.k.a ‘The Bitcoin King’, was one of the arrested individuals.
The investigative operation involved some 90 federal police officers. The people involved in the so-called “Operation Daemon” were tasked with investigating Bitcoin Banco Group’s money-laundering operations, bankruptcy crimes, and embezzlement activities. Foreign agencies from the US and Europe were also involved in the investigation.
In 2019, right around the time users couldn’t get paid, the company had said that around 7000 Bitcoins had suddenly “disappeared”, thus clients could not receive their money back. Bitcoin Banco Group filed for judicial recovery, instead of announcing bankruptcy, and was able to restructure its finances and administrations after the unexpected “loss” of the aforementioned crypto assets. Despite this, the firm never disclosed the reason behind the sudden disappearance of these 7000 BTCs.
Bitcoin Banco Group gained quite a bit of credibility during and after the crypto boom. It was able to attract a large clientele and to gather money from it by sending out very misleading promises of profit.
Source
These scammers have been operating for a long time, I am glad they finally got caught.
Reports reveal that the company had defrauded more than 7000 investors out of $300 million (1.5 billion Brazilian reais). The head of the scheme Cláudio Oliveira, a.k.a ‘The Bitcoin King’, was one of the arrested individuals.
The investigative operation involved some 90 federal police officers. The people involved in the so-called “Operation Daemon” were tasked with investigating Bitcoin Banco Group’s money-laundering operations, bankruptcy crimes, and embezzlement activities. Foreign agencies from the US and Europe were also involved in the investigation.
In 2019, right around the time users couldn’t get paid, the company had said that around 7000 Bitcoins had suddenly “disappeared”, thus clients could not receive their money back. Bitcoin Banco Group filed for judicial recovery, instead of announcing bankruptcy, and was able to restructure its finances and administrations after the unexpected “loss” of the aforementioned crypto assets. Despite this, the firm never disclosed the reason behind the sudden disappearance of these 7000 BTCs.
Bitcoin Banco Group gained quite a bit of credibility during and after the crypto boom. It was able to attract a large clientele and to gather money from it by sending out very misleading promises of profit.
Source
These scammers have been operating for a long time, I am glad they finally got caught.
