The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued 17 individuals tied to an alleged Ponzi scheme that took in $300 million from over 40,000 victims.
HyperVerse’s Alleged Ponzi Scheme Raked in Nearly $2B, Hired Actor as Fake CEO
HyperVerse was a nearly $2 billion fraudulent crypto investment scheme with a fake CEO at its helm, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a grand jury allege in a lawsuit and criminal indictments against two of its leaders.
HyperVerse’s Alleged Ponzi Scheme Raked in Nearly $2B, Hired Actor as Fake CEO
HyperVerse was a nearly $2 billion fraudulent crypto investment scheme with a fake CEO at its helm, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a grand jury allege in a lawsuit and criminal indictments against two of its leaders.
Crypto is for criminals? JPMorgan has been fined $39B and has its own token
Crypto proponents on X wasted no time pointing out the hypocrisy of JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s recent remarks to the United States Banking Committee about Bitcoin and crypto.
Estonian court nixes extradition of accused crypto scammers to US
Ivan Turogin and Sergei Potapenko are suspected in a $575 million fraud case, but they can’t be exposed to U.S. detention conditions.
Blast’s One-Week, $600M Haul Shows Promise of Yield, Pitfalls of Hype
The idea of a yield-paying layer-2 blockchain atop Ethereum has clearly demonstrated market allure. But even the project’s biggest investor has taken issue with the execution and marketing surrounding the initial rollout.
THORChain becomes third largest DEX as Rune surges 50% in a week
THORChain $1.32 billion in trading volume over the last week only trails Uniswap and PancakeSwap among non-centralized exchanges.
Luxor refutes claims its Bitcoin hashrate-backed product is BlockFi, Celsius 2.0
“The return comes from hashrate, not from pixie dust, ponzi schemes, or rehypothecation,” a Luxor Technology executive stressed.
Crypto Ponzi scheme AirBit: All but one exec now sentenced
AirBit Club co-founder Dos Santos is now the last AirBit defendant not yet sentenced but is scheduled to learn his fate on Oct. 4, 2023.
Former CEO of sham crypto miner IcomTech pleads guilty of wire fraud for Ponzi scheme
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Jake Paul-endorsed SafeMoon gets hacked after introducing a bug in upgrade
A public burn function introduced in the latest upgrade allegedly allows users to burn tokens from other addresses.
Airbit Club Founders, Lawyer Plead Guilty to $100M Fraud Scheme
The scheme’s founders and promoters promised victims their money would be invested in a lucrative mining operation, but instead spent funds on cars, jewelry and luxury homes.
CFTC Charges California Firm and CEO With Fraud, Misappropriation of Digital Assets
The commission alleges the defendants fraudulently solicited over $7 million worth of bitcoin and ether and misappropriated a portion of the funds in a Ponzi-like scheme.
800 victims of ‘massive’ Bitconnect fraud to receive $17M restitution
The millions will be distributed among the select number of victims, but thousands more were impacted by the $2.4 billion fraudulent scheme.
Executives from $1.5B South Korean crypto exchange fraud jailed
The latest court action now takes the number of V Global execs behind bars up to seven, as the CEO, known as Mr. Lee was previously sentenced to a 22 year prison term.
$4B OneCoin scam co-founder pleads guilty, faces 60 years jail
The co-founder of the fraudulent scheme is set to be sentenced in April 2023 on charges relating to wire fraud and money laundering.
Charges laid over alleged ‘crypto mining’ Ponzis that netted $8.4M
Various creators and promotors of two allegedly fraudulent crypto companies are facing a litany of charges that could land them 20 years in jail.
Trouble in the Bahamas following FTX collapse: Report
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Ep02- BTC Killer – Companion Guide For BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast
Let’s listen to “The Missing Cryptoqueen” podcast together from the very beginning, as the new episodes arrive. This second one presents new facets of Dr. Ruja’s story and amplifies the scope of the podcast. Good news, “The Missing Cryptoqueen” might be even more interesting than we previously believed. As BBC presenter Jamie Bartlett puts it, “we thought we were looking for a missing billionaire, but now we seem to be entering a world that’s far murkier than we thought.”
NewsBTC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” listening group is now in session. In the first few minutes of this episode, Dr. Ruja Ignatova says: “In two years, nobody will talk about bitcoin anymore.” A line out of the book of every crypto scammer out there.
Remember, you can download episodes directly from the BBC, or listen to “The Missing Cryptoqueen” through Apple, Spotify, or iVoox.
About “The Missing Cryptoqueen ’s” Episode Two, “The Bitcoin Killer”
This podcast moves fast. It’s only “The Missing Cryptoqueen ’s” second episode and the whole OneCoin fiasco is already breaking apart. The producer and the presenter move between telling the story of what happened and the actual search for Dr. Ruja. The team went to Bulgaria and asked around about the controversial character. Every time they mentioned her, Bulgarians started to speak loudly among themselves.
They are going to places that she frequented, sure, but everyone seems to know about Ruja Ignatova.
In any case, “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” audience is not exactly a cryptocurrency-savvy one. The episode starts with a terrible definition of what money is, and a shaky explanation of how blockchain technology works. It’s necessary, because we will soon find out that OneCoin didn’t even run on a blockchain. This was a scam through and through from the very beginning.
The podcast/ radio documentary also serves as a living and breathing explanation of how a Ponzi scheme works. And the story’s protagonists tell you exactly what happened in their own words. One of the victims, Jane; a developer turned OneCoin whistleblower; and OneCoin denouncer Timothy Curry are the guests in “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” second episode.
In the episode’s fourth quarter, the team goes to the marina where the boat Dr. Ruja’s disappeared from was located. The Bulgarians there mention the mafia. And the developer turned whistleblower also alludes to it.
BTC price chart for 10/06/2022 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
An Almost-Always-Present Characteristic Of A Scam Or Ponzi
Besides the lack of a blockchain, “The Missing Cryptoqueen” points out an almost-always-present characteristic of a scam or Ponzi:
- People couldn’t withdraw or spend the tokens they bought.
In this case, OneCoin only lived in a SQL Database in Bulgaria. The naive investors saw the price pumping and believed they were making a killing, but their tokens were just numbers on a screen. They couldn’t exchange them for other cryptocurrencies because OneCoin was not a cryptocurrency. It didn’t run on a blockchain.
At the time, the team reached out to OneCoin with these allegations and they denied everything and blamed the authorities and regulations for their token’s lack of usability. Classic scammers.
Quotes From “The Missing Cryptoqueen ’s” Episode Two – “The Bitcoin Killer”
- “The €10,000 that Jen invested which she thought was now worth over €100,000 in one coin was just a number that someone in an office in Bulgaria had made up and could delete just as easily. OneCoin is not a real cryptocurrency, it’s just pretending to be one. It’s fake, it’s a scam, and it could be the scam of the century.”
- “OneCoin was only possible because of Dr. Ruja. Whenever we see complicated technology that we don’t understand, we make a judgment about it based on things we do understand. Like the fact that the boss was an inspirational, successful businesswoman. Dr. Ruja’s magic trick was to use the hype and terminology of legitimate cryptocurrencies. So ordinary people like Jen couldn’t tell the difference between the real and the fake.”
Extra Material And Episode Credits
This week’s extra material comes courtesy of Investopedia, which summarizes “The Missing Cryptoqueen ’s” plot as:
“OneCoin was a cryptocurrency-based Ponzi scheme. The companies behind the scheme were OneCoin Ltd. and OneLife Network Ltd., founded by Bulgarian national Ruja Ignatova, who disappeared in 2017. However, not before the scheme raised $4 billion.”
And finally, the episode’s credits:
Presenter: Jamie Bartlett
Producer: Georgia Catt
Story consultant: Chris Berube
Editor: Philip Sellars
Original music and sound design: Phil Channell
Original music and vocals: Dessislava Stefanova and the London Bulgarian Choir
Previous Companion Guides For BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast:
Featured Image: The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast logo from the BBC | Charts by TradingView
How to identify and avoid a crypto pump-and-dump scheme?
Pump-and-dump in crypto is an orchestrated fraud that involves misleading investors into purchasing artificially inflated tokens — typically marketed and hyped by paying celebrities and social influencers.