Tagged: fraud

February 24, 2020 @ 4:47 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has updated its “PAUSE” list or Public Alert: Unregistered Soliciting Entities. The list highlights bogus offering sites and fictitious regulators. In the internet era, both are rampant as anyone, anywhere can cobble together a pretty slick looking website making… Read More

February 24, 2020 @ 1:21 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last month, Crowdfund Insider reported on two debt-based investment platforms based in Estonia closing their doors leaving investors with many questions and apparently no money. Envestio tweeted that the problem had to do with a “well-planned set of actions aimed to cause significant financial and… Read More

February 12, 2020 @ 11:17 am By JD Alois  |  

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against defendants Q3 Holdings, LLC and Q3 I, LP and their principal, Michael Ackerman. As was previously reported, the Securities and… Read More

February 12, 2020 @ 3:38 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed charges against Michael W. Ackerman, of Sheffield Lake, Ohio, who allegedly organized a cryptocurrency trading scheme that raised approximately $33 million. The SEC said that about 150 investors including many physicians, lost money in the alleged fraud…. Read More

February 9, 2020 @ 11:07 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Bitmain Technologies, a China-based consumer-grade ASIC miner, recently address fraudulent usage of websites Bitmain.farm and Antminersmiling.com. The company reported it discovered some websites that have been impersonating Bitmain and have been communicating with its existing customers under false pretense. “In order to protect the legitimate… Read More

February 9, 2020 @ 10:20 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

SafetyPay, a U.S.-based digital payments platform, announced last week it has teamed up with financial AI crime platform Feedzai to offer extra protection against fraud risk to its customers. Founded in 2007, SafetyPay notably provides a secure e-payment method that enables cash sales through a… Read More

January 21, 2020 @ 8:50 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Sergii “Sergey” Grybniak and his company Opporty International, Inc. for an allegedly fraudulent initial coin offering. According to the SEC, Grybniak and his company raised $600,000 from around 200 investors during the sale of unregistered “digital asset… Read More

December 31, 2019 @ 11:58 am By JD Alois  |  

The internet has disrupted so many different industries mainly for the better. Fintech, or financial technology, is really the digitization of financial services that previously leaned in an analog direction, lending, trading & investing, payments, banking and more. While the benefits to consumers and business… Read More

December 29, 2019 @ 10:20 am By Cali Haan  |  

Citing a “serious risk of flight,” Judge William Matthewman has ordered the pre-trial detention of Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks in Florida. Weeks is one of three men arrested in different parts of the U.S. in early December for allegedly carrying out a $722 million USD cryptocurrency “mining”… Read More

December 24, 2019 @ 10:54 am By Cali Haan  |  

Lawyers for alleged stolen-bitcoin launderer Alexander Vinnick have successfully lobbied for suspension of the Greek Justice Minister’s orders compelling Vinnick’s extradition to France, Greek Reporter writes. For the past two-and-a-half years since his arrest in Greece, Vinnick has been at the centre of an extradition… Read More

December 19, 2019 @ 3:29 am By Cali Haan  |  

Cryptoforensics firm Chainalysis says massive OTC cryptocurrency cash-outs by “PlusToken” scammers may be driving down the price of bitcoins. According to the firm: “Based in China, PlusToken presented itself as a cryptocurrency wallet that would reward users with high rates of return if they purchased… Read More

December 17, 2019 @ 9:18 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Two young brothers from Surrey, British Columbia, have plead guilty to defrauding a 63-year-old Oregon woman out of bitcoins worth $140 000 USD at the time and ~$162 ooo at current prices. The Oregonian reports that Jagroop Singh Khatkar, 24, and Karanjit Singh Khatkhar, 23, plead guilty before… Read More

December 17, 2019 @ 4:47 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Macau businessperson Frederico dos Santos Rosário and his Hong Kong business partner, Dennis Lau, are being prosecuted in Macau for promoting OneCoin, a fraudulent $4 billion USD cryptocurrency scheme started by Bulgarians Ruja and Konstantin Ignatov and pervaded across the world. According to Journal Tribune… Read More

December 12, 2019 @ 1:17 am By Cali Haan  |  

Group-IB, a Moscow-founded cybersecurity firm now based in Singapore, “has detected a massive upload of debit and credit card records …on one of the most popular underground cardshops.” According to the firm, between October 28th and November 27th of this year, criminals uploaded more than 460,000… Read More

December 11, 2019 @ 6:31 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Four men have been arrested and charged with promoting a cryptocurrency mining pyramid scheme that defrauded victims out of $722 million USD. Matthew Brent Goettsche, Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks and Joseph Frank Abel were arrested in various locations in the United States early this month and were… Read More

December 10, 2019 @ 9:45 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Bogdan Nicolescu, 37, and Radu Miclaus, 37, two members of a Romanian gang that controlled a network of at least 40o ooo malware-infected computers, have been sentenced to 18 and 20 years in prison each. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office,… Read More

December 7, 2019 @ 7:44 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Authorities in Thailand have arrested 24 Chinese nationals perpetuating a scam involving cryptocurrencies and solicitation phone calls to citizens living in China. According to the Thai Immigration Bureau, the parties arrested were recruited by a gangster who, open the workers’ arrival, confiscated their passports. The… Read More

December 4, 2019 @ 8:38 am By Cali Haan  |  

Evidence unearthed by the BBC Russia suggests that the FSB, Russia’s military intelligence agency, is behind the disappearance of $450 million USD worth of cryptocurrency from the WEX cryptocurrency exchange. Much of that money belonged to exchange customers. Other parts of the story suggest the… Read More

November 27, 2019 @ 9:35 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Mark Scott, a lawyer accused of abetting the multibillion dollar OneCoin cryptocurrency scam, has been convicted of money laundering and bank fraud. Scott is now facing up to 50 years in prison. According to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman: “Mark S. Scott, an equity partner… Read More

November 24, 2019 @ 9:40 pm By JD Alois  |  

Renwick Haddow, a UK citizen who allegedly perpetrated multiple frauds, has received additional sanctions from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Haddow apparently also adopted the alias “Jonathan Black.” Haddow was previously disqualified as a director of any United Kingdom company for eight years, and… Read More