After investigating one of the largest fraudulent projects in the crypto industry, the Chinese police finally arrested the entire team behind the popular PlusToken crypto scam. Although previous reports said some of the executives had been caught a few months ago, Thursday’s report said the 27 people arrested were key members of the fraudulent system. And the saga is over.
27 PlusToken key members arrested
The Chinese law enforcement authorities have been investigating the project since its completion last year. The search for fraudsters took 12 months, as key members of the system were scattered in various parts of the world. According to the report, a special task force that carried out the operation visited countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia, among others, and worked with law enforcement authorities to detain 27 suspects. Police also arrested 82 other members associated with the system, the report said.
PlusToken was a pyramid scheme that emerged in May 2018. It described itself as a crypto wallet provider and investment program that pays investors high returns between 9% and 10% per month. But in reality it was nothing more than a ponzi scheme similar to the popular crypto scams BitConnect and OneCoin.
PlusToken, with most of its users from Korea and China, ceased operations in 2019 and stole cryptocurrencies worth billions of dollars to about 2 million people. They consist of local and international investors. Previous reports from analytics companies such as Chainalysis have estimated a total loss of $ 3 billion. However, a police report revealed that the victims had lost about $ 5.8 billion, making PlusToken the largest crypto scam to date.
Since the end of the scam, fraudsters have moved stolen funds between unknown wallets, and some have also laundered through their personal wallets and OTC trades. Last month, the $ 240 million in Ethereum and EOS cryptocurrencies moved from official PlusToken wallets to unknown wallets. In addition, Chainalysis tracked the transfer of over 800,000 ETH and 45,000 BTC to the personal addresses of fraudsters’ wallets.
Welcome development
The arrest of key members of the PlusToken team is a welcome development in the crypto industry. Hopefully, the same efforts will be made to arrest the founders of other fraudulent systems, such as OneCoin, which stole $ 4 billion from investors.
The brother of the founder of OneCoin has been arrested and faces up to 90 years in prison for money laundering and fines for fraud. However, Ruja Ignatova, the founder of this system, is still at large and still nowhere to be found.
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