Tagged: fraud

January 2, 2019 @ 7:18 am By Cali Haan  |  

A freedom-of-information request filed by The Sunday Telegraph shows that four-fifths of 49 companies investigated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) resulted in warnings about those companies being issued to the public. A total of 67 investigations into crypto operations have been launched by the FCA. 18 investigations are… Read More

December 31, 2018 @ 9:55 am By Cali Haan  |  

Reporters at The Wall Street Journal have identified 513 cryptocurrency projects using plagiarized language, listing false “team members” and promising outsize returns to lure investors. Reporters used automated key-word search tools and human scrutiny to to trawl 3300 crypto white papers for evidence of misconduct. All… Read More

December 26, 2018 @ 10:30 am By Cali Haan  |  

A team of seven economist scholars has found that pump and dump schemes in cryptocurrency trading are ‘pervasive’: “The surge of interest in cryptocurrencies has been accompanied by a proliferation of fraud. This paper examines a pervasive tactic long known to financial markets: pump and… Read More

December 26, 2018 @ 4:44 am By Cali Haan  |  

Individuals behind a “fork-merge” of Bitcoin and a fork of ZCash called ZClassic, “Bitcoin Private,” are in hot water this week on Twitter following the publication of an article by CoinMetrics that alleges they secretly pre-mined and vested themselves with BTCP coins and failed to disclose these… Read More

December 23, 2018 @ 9:55 am By Cali Haan  |  

Cybercrime police in the Indian city of Pune have arrested 10 individuals accused of defrauding 8000 investors in a Bitcoin-related Ponzi scheme called “GB21.” According to The Times of India, the leader of the scheme, Amit Bharadwaj, and his brother Vivek, ran a company called Gain Bitcoin,… Read More

December 22, 2018 @ 2:14 pm By Cali Haan  |  

About one week after its CEO delivered a keynote address to the Korean parliament on the regulation of crypto markets there, the Upbit cryptocurrency exchange’s board chair, finance director and an employee have been indicted for allegedly, “inflat(ing) the volume of transactions by making ($226.2… Read More

December 19, 2018 @ 1:33 am By Cali Haan  |  

A Romanian citizen arrested last week by local cyber police and American Secret Service agents has been released on bail in the city of Cluj where he runs one of the region’s largest crypto exchanges. The agents flew to Romania to seek the arrest and… Read More

December 17, 2018 @ 10:03 pm By JD Alois  |  

Consob (Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa) the Italian agency that regulates the securities industry, has put a halt to two crypto-based offerings, according to postings on their site. Both companies have received a 90 day suspension on a “precautionary basis” and are banned… Read More

December 14, 2018 @ 9:32 am By Onki Kwan  |  

Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been actively pursuing all players in the initial coin offering (ICO) space, including companies that have raised money with ICOs, an exchange, people promoting ICOs, and most recently, an ICO investment fund. The SEC’s recent actions are… Read More

December 8, 2018 @ 2:29 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Steven Peikin, Co-Director of the SEC’s Division of  Enforcement, told an audience at Harvard Law School this week that, given the increasingly cross-border nature of ICO and securities fundraising, “Collaboration with international regulators and law enforcement is critical to the SEC’s civil law enforcement success.”… Read More

December 1, 2018 @ 11:00 am By Cali Haan  |  

Jared Rice Sr, the man behind AriseBank and the associated cryptocurrency/token, AriseCoin, has been indicted in the Northern District of Texas and, if convicted, faces a possible prison sentence of 120 years. Rice Sr was arrested by the FBI Wednesday and is charged with 3… Read More

November 30, 2018 @ 1:10 pm By Cali Haan  |  

A 27-year-old woman in New York has pleaded guilty to financing the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS or Daesh). According to a release from the US Department of Justice, between March and July 31st, 2017, Zoobia Shahnaz of Brentwood, New York, committed multiple acts… Read More

November 27, 2018 @ 9:36 am By Cali Haan  |  

Bulgarian police have arrested and charged 3 people accused of stealing $5 million in cryptocurrencies, Reuters reports. The arrests were announced Monday by officials from the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior and local prosecutors. Police seized $3 million in cryptocurrency at the scene as well… Read More

November 21, 2018 @ 4:51 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Police in Manhattan have arrested and charged Nicholas Truglia, 21, with 21 counts of felony crimes related to hacks he allegedly conducted against 6 individuals, including a $1 million USD theft of cryptocurrencies from Silicon Valley executive Robert Ross. According to the New York Post,… Read More

November 21, 2018 @ 3:45 am By Cali Haan  |  

According to three sources to Bloomberg, a broad investigation into manipulation of cryptocurrency markets initiated last year by the US Department of Justice is now focussing on alleged Bitcoin price manipulation by creators of the Tether cryptocurrency and its origin exchange, Bitfinex. The two businesses are… Read More

November 17, 2018 @ 7:21 am By Cali Haan  |  

Eight men in Tokyo have been charged by local police with running a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme that authorities say defrauded over 6000 individuals in 44 Japanese prefectures of ¥ 7.8 billion ($68.44 million), Asahi reports. The men, including Kazunari Shibata, 46, who works as an executive… Read More

November 16, 2018 @ 3:13 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The first person to be prosecuted in the US for ICO (initial coin offering) fraud has pleaded guilty to misleading 1000 investors, Bloomberg reports. On Thursday, Maksim Zaslavskiy, 39, admitted in a Brooklyn federal courtroom that he collected money for two ICOs: RECoin and Diamond… Read More

November 13, 2018 @ 8:41 pm By Cali Haan  |  

A fake halal cryptocurrency pyramid scheme targeting Muslim investors in India has fallen apart in the Bitcoin bear market, in part due to scrutiny from regulators, Deccan Chronicle (DC) reports. Father-and-son team Syed Fareed and Syed Afaq Ahmed reportedly tapped a network of “ulemas” (Muslim… Read More

November 13, 2018 @ 3:06 pm By Cali Haan  |  

An increasingly “techno-savvy” ruling elite in North Korea is using a “full range” of computerized devices and tactics, including the issuing of fraudulent ICOs (initial coin offerings), to evade global sanctions and, “…generate revenue for the Kim regime,” Insikt Group reports. Insikt’s cybersecurity researchers have… Read More

November 13, 2018 @ 6:35 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Revolut, fintech unicorn and successful Crowdcube alum, is taking its customer protection to the next level, intending to become a world leader. As part of the platform’s plan, a new fleet of machine learning technology has been unveiled, a fleet that has already reportedly seen… Read More