Fraud with Bitcoin & Co. causes billions in damage. The amount of damage in Austria is also considerable.
Whether with large -scale international Fraud Or fraudulent crypto projects in Klagenfurt. The pattern is usually the same. Investors are promised astronomical profits. In the end, the total loss is not uncommon. Worldwide should be last year Between 10 and $ 12.4 billion have been captured in cryptocurrency frauds, like the analysis company Chainalysis recently calculated.
Large fraud programs have decreased, mostly Snowball systems. However, they are still responsible for a little more than half of the damage sums. More individual forms of fraud have increased, especially the so -called „Pig Butchering“ (“Slaughter”). Criminals build up a relationship of trust with their victims and persuade them to invest more and more money in supposedly lucrative crypto systems. Then the money is deducted, the victims remain empty -handed. Also in Austria can be assumed from considerable amounts of damage. The courier summarizes the greatest crypto fraud cases of recent years.
Damage $ 40 billion: the currency crash
To kwon described the cryptocurrency Luna as his “greatest invention”. It was definitely big. The digital currency, launched by the South Korean software developer in 2018, grew up to the largest known crypto fraud. In May 2022, Luna and her twin currency collapsed Terraas investors, began to sell their stocks. An algorithmic mechanism that was supposed to bind the Terra course stably on the dollar and support luna proved to be a fallacy. Hundreds of thousands of small investors and institutional investors were affected. In total, they lost $ 40 billion.
Kwon moved to Montenegro and was finally delivered to the USA. There he has been waiting for his process since the end of 2024. A hearing was postponed in early March to give him time to study the evidence. Because this amount of data is also huge. It is 4 Terabyte or 4 million megabytes.
Damage to $ 8 billion: gigantic stock market bankruptcy
Has already been convicted Sam Banke-Fried and too 25 years in prison. The founder of the crypto exchange Ftx has been sitting in a detention center in the New York district of Brooklyn since 2024. 2022 was his trading platform FTX, at that time with round 9 million users After all, one of the largest crypto trading exchanges in the world, spectacularly collapsed. Around 120,000 Austrian customers were also affected by the bankruptcy. FTX could no longer repay customer funds because they were forwarded to an in -house hedge fund called Alameda Research. The damage was 8 to 10 billion dollars.
The prosecutors threw the then 32-year-old, who liked to appear under the abbreviation “SBF” and also donated high sums to the US Democrats “Unsurpassed greed” before. They demanded up to 50 years in prison for Bankman-Fried, who was arrested in his luxury apartment on the Bahamas. He denied any intention to fraud and pretended to have simply lost the overview of the financial situation of his companies. FTX customers received a good part of their money back. However, the court rejected a mitigation. A thief that brings his prey to Las Vegas and bet there is no claim to it. Even if he used his profits to repay the stolen money, the judge argued.
4 billion euros in damage caused by crypto queen
2014 Should the lawyer Ruja Ignatovaa German citizen with Bulgarian roots, with midsts the supposed cryptocurrency Onecoin invented and raised a billion-in empire based in Dubai. It was a snowball system in which investors could buy Onecoin marketing packages. She called herself “crypto queen”. According to FBI, it is said to have damaged thousands of victims by around four billion dollars.
The longer the lucrative rip -off system ran, the more luxurious it designed her life. In addition to noble properties in Great Britain and Bulgaria, she also owned a luxury yacht. Until October 2017 she directed the OneCoin shop. On October 25, 2017, she flew from Sofia to Athens and was no longer seen afterwards. Since then she was searched by an arrest warrant. That has been counting for three years FBI Ignatova zu den Top ten of the fleeting. It is said to have changed its appearance by means of cosmetic operations. Her successor, her brother, was sentenced to ten years in prison in the United States, but because he cooperated with the FBI, was released after 34 months.
400 million euros damage, 65,000 victims
In the alleged investment fraud around the crypto platform Paraiba World And their successor Trillant The Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA) has been investigating since February 2024 Because of the suspicion of severe commercial fraud. According to the Vienna State Court of Criminal Matters, there are around 65,000 victims across Europe. The Viennese investor lawyer alone Jörg Zarbl represents 700 victims. As early as 2022, the Austrian financial market supervision warned of business with Paraiba. According to the regional court, the procedure is very complex. In addition, procedures for public prosecutors are in Germany, Liechtenstein and the Switzerland pending. It is currently being checked whether a cross -border investigation group is being established.
According to the filing position, the masterminds of Paraiba World, “inevitable” that the capital invested by the victims “will be given professional crypto traders for assessment”. Interest of up to 0.5 percent per day were promised. The bottom line is that the paraiba makers are said to have caused an estimated 400 million euros in damage to the good-faith investors.
Damage 40,000 damaged and 20 million euros
A 27-year-old Klagenfurt and his accomplices wanted to revolutionize the cryptocurrency market. Customers should be so -called tokens of Exw Acquire and with them you should multiply your money on your own. Up to 0.3 percent interest per day should lead to wealth. A total of 40,000 investors from all over the world fell into the Austrians and are said to have invested 20 million euros, according to the authorities. Insider said that the damage even 100 million would be.
But the money of the investors was not increased, but with full hands. So became Luxurities rented, travel in Private jets undertook and Parties on yachts celebrated. In the Billionaires Club in Dubai, a table for the EXW-Zampanos is said to be clear. In the end, everything was just noise and smoke and a large -scale fraud. In 60 trial days the process in Klagenfurt was made. “The main defendant could also sell refrigerators at the North Pole,” said the judge. He and an accomplice held unconditional imprisonment for five years. The three others got off lightly with partially and conditional punishments. Five defendants were acquitted