Tagged: fraud

June 28, 2019 @ 9:37 am By Cali Haan  |  

Europol has announced that a 14-month-long investigation into a €24 million “typosquatting-based” cryptocurrency theft has netted 6 suspects in the UK and Netherlands. The five men and one woman were arrested “in simultaneous warrants” in Bath Staverton, Amsterdam and Rotterdam yesterday morning. An estimate 4 000… Read More

June 24, 2019 @ 4:14 pm By JD Alois  |  

Patrick McDonnell (46), aka “Jason Flack,” has copped a plea of a single fraud charge in an ongoing case of cryptocurrency fraud.  McDonnell was indicted last March. McDonnell operator of CabbageTech, a company that was doing business as Coin Drop Markets, faces up to 20… Read More

June 22, 2019 @ 12:00 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Fiduciary and operational incompetence have been a matter of record since news emerged that Gerald Cotten, CEO of the Canadian cryptocurrency trading platform QuadrigaCX, died without giving anyone password access to $215 million CAD of user cryptocurrencies he ostensibly kept in cold wallet storage devices…. Read More

June 18, 2019 @ 1:37 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a civil enforcement action against UK based defendants Control-Finance Limited, a Bitcoin trading and investment company, and principal, Benjamin Reynolds.  According to the CFTC, the defendants are  charged with “exploiting public enthusiasm for Bitcoin by fraudulently obtaining… Read More

June 9, 2019 @ 10:10 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Payments platform Stripe recently announced the launch of Chargeback Protection, which is described as a new service built on Stripe’s machine learning-based fraud tool Radar, that prevents fraud and protects sales against future chargebacks. The platform further explained the new service and what users can… Read More

June 5, 2019 @ 5:14 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Operators of Coinroom, a Polish cryptocurrency trading platform registered in 2016, have shut down the platform suddenly and disappeared with client funds, Polish business media site Money reports. At least 50 people on an online forum have claimed they lost between 300 and 60,000 “zlotys”… Read More

June 5, 2019 @ 4:32 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has added new fraud charges against Longfin Corp. and its CEO for falsifying the company’s revenue. Longfin’s former consultant Andy Altahawi was also included in the action for “fraudulently securing the company’s listing on Nasdaq.” In April of 2018,… Read More

June 2, 2019 @ 12:17 pm By Cali Haan  |  

John Rwangombwa, Governor National Bank of Rwanda (BNR), has issued a notice alerting Rwandan citizens, “to the existence of investments scam(s)…operating in Rwanda (through locally-registered businesses or from abroad through online platforms).” The warning also states that pyramid, multi-level marketing and fake initial coin offering… Read More

May 30, 2019 @ 7:56 am By Cali Haan  |  

Stating that they plan to “closely monitor market condition(s)… (and) strictly control…illegal acts such as fraud and (multilevel marketing),” officials from the Korean Department of Justice and the Financial Supervisory Commission held an emergency meeting May 28th to “examine…virtual currency market trend(s)” in the wake of price… Read More

May 24, 2019 @ 3:23 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Wirex, a hybrid personal finance platform that merges blockchain tech and traditional finance, announced on Friday it has strengthened its partnership with cryptocurrency safety services Elliptic to reduce the risk of cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering. According to Wirex, the duo has been working together… Read More

May 23, 2019 @ 3:53 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The SEC has filed a civil suit against Daniel Pacheco, 45, of San Clemente, California, alleging he pervaded a cryptocurrency-based pyramid scheme called “IPro” that collected more than $26.5 million USD from investors: “The SEC’s complaint, filed Wednesday, alleges that from January 2017 through March… Read More

May 21, 2019 @ 9:54 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has receved another emergency court order halting an alleged initial coin offering (ICO) fraud. According to the SEC, a $30 million Ponzi scheme, led by South Florida-based Argyle Coin, and its principal Jose Angel Aman, targeted over 300 US… Read More

May 12, 2019 @ 2:17 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Six members of a transnational hacking group known as “The Community” have been indicted in the Eastern District of Michigan and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in relation to SWIM-swap hacks they allegedly conducted to steal cryptocurrencies by… Read More

May 8, 2019 @ 10:44 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Officers of the Spanish Civil Guard in Spain assisted by Europol have arrested eight people and charged eight more for allegedly, “…providing large-scale crypto money laundering services to other criminal organizations.” Europol says the bust of this “cryptocurrency laundering as a service business” comes follows operation… Read More

May 7, 2019 @ 7:51 am By Cali Haan  |  

iFinex, parent company of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange and creator of Tether, the world’s most popular “stablecoin” cryptocurrency, has asked a court in New York to “vacate” (render void) ex parte orders issued by the Attorney General of New York compelling iFinex to produce comprehensive… Read More

May 4, 2019 @ 3:54 pm By JD Alois  |  

Cryptosecurity firm Ciphertrace has published their Q1 report tallying scams, frauds, and other nefarious acts in the crypto sector and the first three months of 2019 were productive ones for the bad guys. According to Ciphertrace, during the first three months of 2019, $1.2 billion… Read More

May 2, 2019 @ 7:41 am By Cali Haan  |  

A lawyer for iFinex, the company behind the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange and”stablecoin” Tether (USDT), has admitted in an affidavit that the company only has enough cash on hand to cover 74% of the tethers it has issued into cryptocurrency trading markets. In the affidavit, “Stuart… Read More

May 1, 2019 @ 6:54 pm By Cali Haan  |  

“Processed hundreds of millions of dollars of unregulated transactions on behalf of numerous cryptocurrency exchanges.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested American citizen Reginald Fowler, 60. The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York has charged him with bank fraud, conspiracy… Read More

April 30, 2019 @ 3:52 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Global payment technology provider Worldpay, Inc. (NYSE: WP; LSE: WPY) announced on Tuesday the launch of FraudSight, which is a new solution designed to prevent fraud and optimize approval rates potentially boosting revenue across all channels. According to Worldpay, FraudSight makes transaction validity decisions for merchants of… Read More

April 28, 2019 @ 9:07 am By Cali Haan  |  

Police in Berkeley, California, are warning the public that a culprit impersonating a police officer has attempted to extort Bitcoins from a resident of that region. According to a City of Berkeley press release issued April 24th regarding the incident: “Just this past Thursday, a… Read More