The authorities of the United States have gone after a group of four Russians whom they allege of running a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.
The law enforcement authorities of the United States have gone after four bad actors, alleging them of running the Ponzi scheme.
Four Russians were Involved
According to the law enforcement authorities, the persons involved were four Russians. They have claimed to be Sergey Maslakov, Mikhail Sergeev, Olena Oblamska, and Vladimir Okhotnikov.
The authorities have claimed that these four personnel were the ones who founded the Ponzi scheme in the first place.
Together, they came up with an investment platform for cryptocurrencies calling it “Forsage”. The authorities have alleged that this person was involved in running a dubious platform for cryptocurrency investments.
The report shared by the authorities has revealed that the founders had been running a pyramid scheme that was global. They did not just target users from a particular region but did it on a worldwide level.
They went on to reveal that as a result of the scheme, they were able to con an enormous amount of money from the investors. Their investigations have revealed that they were able to con almost $340 million from the investors.
The latest reports have confirmed that all of the defendants have been charged for their crimes. They will be put behind bars for 20 years, which is the maximum sentence given the wire fraud charges are implemented on them.
Information about the Scam
The Oregon District’s federal grand jury made a claim about the fraudulent platform Forsage.
They claimed that the founders of the fraudulent platform claimed that it was a legitimate and regulated platform. They even claimed that it was based on smart contracts and network marketing.
To make it sound more attractive, they claimed that it was a matrix project that was decentralized in nature.
In addition to the above, the fraudsters representing themselves as executives of the platform claimed that they were offering huge investment opportunities to the users.
This way, they were able to attract customers from all over the world. People were lured to make huge investments in the platform.
Joint Investigation
The US authorities and prosecutors revealed that they had launched a joint investigation to find the culprits behind the scam and bring them to justice.
They worked tirelessly to find all the clues they could possibly find against the fraudsters to bring them to justice. They wanted to hold them accountable for their crimes and to deal with them swiftly for cheating the investors.
Finally, they have them in their grasp and will ensure that they are served with the highest penalties to make an example out of them.
The authorities also revealed that they are glad that they have a team of investigators who are able to use all the tools necessary to ensure they trace the criminals.
They were able to use all the resources and tools they had available even from the blockchain technology to catch the group.
They are glad that they have put an end to a major pyramid scheme that could have scammed more money if they were not caught in time.
They are confident that going forward, they will be able to catch them more swiftly and with more power.
Multiple Cryptocurrencies were Involved
The authorities have revealed that the defendants had scammed people out of several cryptocurrencies. They had targeted users from all major blockchains.
The blockchain networks they targeted were Tron, Binance Smart Chain, and Ethereum. These are known for being some of the largest blockchain networks that host thousands of cryptocurrencies.
According to the scam details, most of the users had invested their ETH into the scheme. Only a handful of investors were able to get ETH back for their investments but they were less than their initial investments.
Most of the investors never received a single dime or coin against their investments from the scammers.
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