During the numerous scams in the cryptocurrency industry, some people became the epitome of hate and dirt stealing millions to billions of people. From Satish Kumbani to SBF, the list is interesting and equally disgusting. They are all despiteful and excrements of humanity, they are all equally guilty and harmful as they managed to destroy the lives of many people. Some are unknown to most people and some are "famous", who is the most disgusting of them and hated the most?
1. Satish Kumbhan and the BitConnect Scam.
BitConnect was a lending and exchange platform powered by BitConnect Coin founded by Satish Kumbhan. It advertised large profits and there was a lot of hype around it.
However, BitConnect was soon under the suspicion of being a Ponzi scheme, which proved to be true. In February 2022, BitConnect's founder was charged with orchestrating a global Ponzi scheme worth $2.4 billion.
BitConnect’s founder Satish Kumbhani was indicted last year for orchestrating the “global Ponzi scheme.” But prosecutors have said he remains at large, and it’s likely that he left his native country India to an as-yet-unknown location.
2. Ruja Ignatova and OneCoin Scam.
OneCoin is another Ponzi Scheme that was presented as a cryptocurrency worth investing in. It was run by Ruja Ignatova from Bulgaria, known as the Cryptoqueen.
Her story is so insane that it reads like a movie plot.
After scamming investors out of $4 billion, she disappeared in 2017, never to be seen again. Currently, she’s on the FBI’s most wanted list and there’s a $100,000 reward to help find her.
3. Do Kwon and Terra-Luna.
Kwon made “fraudulent misrepresentations” about the stability of TerraUSD. EVM-compatible smart contract platform Terra (LUNA) was among the most overhyped Ethereum (ETH) killers of 2021. However, the lion’s share of its TVL was concentrated on Anchor Protocol (ANC), a simple yield farming machine that offered a 19% APY on deposits in Terra USD (UST), Terra’s now-defunct USD-pegged stablecoin. In total, more than $20 billion in equivalent was locked in Anchor (ANC) in Q1, 2022. However, in early May 2022, someone started aggressively sending UST to pools on the Curve Finance (CRV) Defi and exchanging the tokens on USD Coin (USDC). UST lost its peg. Terraform Labs and its CEO Do Kwon started injecting liquidity into the UST/LUNA mechanism. However, due to a massive capital run, both LUNA and UST dropped to almost zero values. The Terra (LUNA) blockchain was halted for good. As covered by U.Today previously, researchers unveiled that it was Terraform Labs that initiated the collapse: massive UST transfers were authorized by Do Kwon. The Terra founder allegedly ran to Serbia and tried to cash out his Bitcoins (BTC) there.
4. Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX.
The collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its associated crypto investing firm Alameda Research was the most surprising drama in Web3: SBF and his team attempted to gain enormous control over the industry by signing dozens of partnerships, appearing on Forbes’ covers and so on. However, the balance sheet of Alameda Research depended heavily on FTX Token (FTT), the native cryptocurrency of FTX. That’s why the whole system collapsed when Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao started aggressively selling FTT (over $500 million in equivalent was released by CZ). Just like in all similar cases, investors started mass withdrawing their money from FTX. The platform stopped the withdrawals, SBF stepped down as CEO and filed for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, it became known that he was using investors’ and customers' money in his own trading firm, Alameda Research. Due to terrible mismanagement, Alameda Research was well underwater. SBF was arrested and released on bail while the realized losses from the FTX collapse peaked at $9 billion in equivalent.
5. Ameer and Raees Cajee and Africrypt.
Africrypt was a massive scam perpetrated by two brothers, Ameer and Raees Cajee, aged 18 and 21 then, respectively. The brothers allegedly targeted high-net-worth individuals and celebrities in South Africa, luring them with promises of lucrative returns. They urged their clients to keep the project a secret, which inadvertently lured even more people, authorities said.
It all came crashing down as all scams do, and customers started being unable to access their funds. The Cajees at first claimed that Africrypt had been hacked, but cybersecurity experts later linked the “hackers” wallet addresses to the two brothers. They then tried to keep the scam a secret, but it all imploded after some time. The Cajee brothers made off with more than $3.6 billion, a figure that their lawyer at the time dismissed.
6. Faruk Fatih Özer and Thodex Scam.
Thodex was a Turkish crypto exchange launched in 2017 by Faruk Fatih Özer.
In April 2021, bitcoin hit its all-time high of $62k per coin. That same month, Thodex shut down, citing an emergency “6-hour maintenance period.” The shutdown extended for five days, and then Thodex shut down the platform completely.
Özer immediately fled Turkey and never returned. He took over $2 billion from over 100k investors. It became clear that Özer was using the money for personal use, and over 60 arrests were made in the ensuing months. But his whereabouts remain unknown to this day.
If Özer is ever caught, he will face 40,000 years in prison sentence for financial fraud under the Turkish legal code.
7. Chen Bo and PlusToken.
PlusToken was founded in early 2018 by Chen Bo, posing as a South Korean wallet and exchange. It lured investors with promises of quick and guaranteed returns. In the two years that followed, Bo brought on several others and expanded the scam to other Southeast Asian countries including China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vanuatu, and Vietnam.
PlusToken operators had devised a pyramid scheme that managed to lure over 2.6 million investors, authorities said. The scam was organized into at least 3,200 investor levels, with more referrals and bigger investments bumping an investor up the chain. The operators also lied to investors that they were making money through digital currency investing, according to investors.
As the Yancheng court uncovered, the orchestrators just used the new investors' money to pay back some of the initial investors, in a true Ponzi scheme manner. They also used some of the funds to buy luxury cars and homes, invested in real estate, and organized plush events to lure more investors.
The Chinese government brought an end to the scam, arresting 109 PlusToken operators. Of these, 27 held executive positions at the scam. The Chinese later government confiscated $4 billion worth of crypto linked to the scam. However, it seems that not all the individuals involved have been traced, as unknown entities have successfully withdrawn some of the stolen funds in 2020.
8. Pincoin Scam.
Named iFan and Pincoin, the projects were the brainchild of Bui Thi My Ngoc, Ho Phu Ty, Ho Xuan Van, Luong Huynh Quoc Huy, Luu Trong Tuan, Nguyen Duc Trong, Nguyen Trung Hieu, and Vu Huu Loi. The group exhibited no shortage of business acumen, claiming that the projects originated in India and Singapore, instead of admitting that they were actually home-grown.
Pincoin was a cryptocurrency project focused on asset sharing. It promised an insanely high ROI of up to 312%, which is a major red flag because no project can promise a return on investment, let alone an ROI of that size.
Furthermore, the project had a recruitment system and multi-level structure which screams Ponzi Scheme. That was proven to be true by the financial scam directory Behindmlm.
$600 million was stolen from investors in the Pincoin Scam.
9. Matthew Brent Goettsche and Bitclub Network.
From April 2014 through December 2019, the BitClub Network was a fraudulent scheme that solicited money from investors in exchange for shares of purported cryptocurrency mining pools and rewarded investors for recruiting new investors into the scheme. Matthew Brent Goettsche, BitClub Network’s creator and operator, and Silviu Catalin Balaci, Russ Albert Medlin, Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks, and Joseph Frank Abel, were charged by indictment in December 2019 in connection with the BitClub Network scheme.
Bitclub network was advertised as “the most innovative & lucrative way to earn digital currency”. It was a community of people who wanted to make money with Bitcoin and other currencies.
However, Bitclub Network turned out to be a fraud. According to the IRS, “BitClub Network was a fraudulent scheme that solicited money from investors in exchange for shares of purported cryptocurrency mining pools and rewarded investors for recruiting new investors into the scheme.”
The team behind Bitclub Network scammed investors out of $722 million and has been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud.
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