Bitcoin SIM swapper charged with stealing $50 million, arrested in British Columbia

Tweet $50 Million SIM-swapped A man from Montreal, Samy Bensaci, who allegedly stole US$50 million in Bitcoin from US residents, was arrested in Victoria, British Columbia, and removed to Ontario for prosecution, where he has since been released on bail, reported La Presse today. The theft of $50 million happened during 2018 and 2019, according […]

Over $3.2 billion missing in digital currency fraud in China; several Bitcoin exchanges shut down and many CEOs disappear with funds

Tweet A few weeks ago in China, several digital currency exchanges announced that they were suspending trading or shutting down operations altogether, leaving the recovery of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of funds with those exchanges up in the air, and this after approximately US$3 billion went missing from two initial coin offerings (“ICOs“) […]

Bitcoin advisor arrested for allegedly providing technical education on Blockchain to North Korea

Tweet Unsealed criminal complaint The US Attorney for the SDNY, together with the FBI yesterday announced the arrest of Virgil Griffith, a cryptocurrency advisor, in connection with technical services he allegedly provided to educate the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“North Korea”) on sanctions avoidance and money laundering. Griffith was the subject of a criminal […]

Canadian digital currency exchange helps you buy a sanctions-avoidance coin created by a Ukrainian on a sanctions list, with ties to a $100M Ponzi scheme

Tweet Russian on OFAC list launches a coin The Kharon Brief has an interesting article here about a Ukrainian named Aleksei Muratov, also spelled Aleksey Muratov, on the US sanctions list here, who founded, launched and owns an initial coin offering called PRIZM. PRIZM whitepaper The PRIZM coin in the Ukraine has a white paper […]

The Com Man: Canadian ICO founder who led a rich and famous lifestyle with private jet trips, diamond watches and fast cars, arrested

Tweet Canadian ICO founder arrested; investors all over the world may be out at least $80 million A Canadian from Montreal, Quebec, named Aziz Com Mirza, was arrested in Dubai on October 27, 2019, and is chilling in the Al Awir jail, on allegations of running a Ponzi scheme. Mirza founded a Canadian initial coin […]

Italian police shut down darknet market allegedly run by a teenager that listed for sale drugs, weapons, fake ID and “bank drop” money laundering services, including to Canadians

Tweet Canadians among top users of seized darknet drug and weapons site The Italian Guardia di Finanza has arrested three individuals in Italy who are alleged to have operated the darknet site on TOR called the Berlusconi Market. The Berlusconi Market had over 100,000 illegal goods and services listed for sale such as illegal drugs, […]

Canadian jailbird was able to traffic in fentanyl internationally using Bitcoin, US authorities say, and launder money from jail

Tweet A Canadian incarcerated near Montreal, Jason Berry, is facing extradition to the US over charges that, from jail, he trafficked fentanyl all over the world. According to the extradition request, the fentanyl sold by Berry caused the death of several Americans, as well as Canadians from overdoses. Berry is serving a 12 year sentence […]

“Take the money and run, and blame someone else” – a digital currency exchange founder’s exit strategy

Tweet The brother A criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of New York and deposed by a special agent of the FBI against Konstantin Ignatov, an executive who helped operate a digital currency company called OneCoin and a digital currency exchange, sheds some light on the murky world of OneCoin. The money From 2014 […]

SEC obtains emergency order against Telegram’s ICO, which raised $1.7 billion from investors

Tweet Ex parte injunction The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC“) announced today that it filed an emergency application ex parte in US Federal District Court in Manhattan, and after a hearing, obtained a temporary order over the initial coin offering (“ICO“) launched by Telegram Group, Inc. (“Telegram“), the messaging application, which raised $1.7 billion from investors […]

Eagle Scout who became a Bitcoin multi-millionaire by selling fentanyl-laced pills on Canadian darknet site, found guilty of super kingpin charges

Tweet Super kingpin fentanyl dealer Aaron Shamo, who was an Eagle Scout and a Mormon, was found guilty at the end of August in Utah of continuing a criminal enterprise on the darknet and selling fake oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl. He is expected to be sentenced to life imprisonment under the “super kingpin” laws, similar […]