Cryptocurrency fraudsters who stole from EU citizens exposed. PHOTOS

The Security Service and the National Police, together with law enforcement agencies of the Republics of Latvia and Lithuania, have dismantled a large-scale fraud scheme designed to extort money from European Union citizens.

As a result of joint operations in Dnipro, the leader of the criminal organisation and 10 of his accomplices, who extorted money from foreigners under the guise of investments in electronic exchanges, were detained, according to Censor.NET.

What is known?

The investigation established that over the course of a year, the dealers "earned" at least $1.2 million in illegal income from the scheme.

To implement the "scheme," its organisers set up four call centres in the city, whose operators called EU citizens and offered them to invest money in "promising" crypto projects.

It was established that, to be more convincing, the fraudsters showed clients rapid profit growth on an online platform that imitated the work of a cryptocurrency exchange.

This website displayed falsified graphs showing the increase in asset value and the "profitability" of investments. In reality, this data was fabricated and had nothing to do with actual trading.

At the initial stage, the dealers offered clients to make a symbolic first deposit, after which investors were "encouraged" with instant dividends. In this way, the victim of the scam was "hooked" and transferred increasingly larger amounts to the crypto wallets of call centre operators. As soon as the investment reached its maximum limit, the perpetrators immediately cut off contact with the client and blocked their contacts.

During 40 searches of the offices and homes of those detained, mobile phones and computer equipment containing evidence of the "scheme" were seized, as well as 21 million hryvnia, presumably obtained by criminal means.

The detainees have been notified of their suspicion of committing crimes under three articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

creation and leadership of a criminal organisation, as well as participation in it;
fraud committed on a particularly large scale through illegal transactions using electronic computing equipment;
legalisation (laundering) of property obtained by criminal means, committed on an especially large scale.