Tag: PlusToken

Recently, the arrest of an Indian victim of the global crypto Ponzi scheme BitConnect has attracted attention. The victim, Shailesh Babulal Bhatt, had lost money in BitConnect and subsequently Bhatt kidnapped two employees of BitConnect founder Satish Kumbhani and successfully extorted $148 million worth of Bitcoins. Especially in the aftermath of the second Bitcoin Halving in 2016, crypto Ponzi schemes defrauded millions of naïve investors out of billions. Here is our report.

According to The Block, crypto assets worth more than $4.2 billion at today’s prices have been seized in Chinese law enforcement actions in the PlusToken Ponzi scheme. The seized cryptos will be forfeited to the national treasury. The scammers allegedly cheated more than 2 million people out of more than $7.6 billion. So far, 16 people have been convicted and received prison-terms between two to 11 years as well as fines between $100,000 to $1 million.

The gigantic Chinese PlusToken crypto scheme has kept the crypto markets massively busy in the last two years. PlusToken with $5.7B raised from some 800,000 members is said to have been a driving force behind manipulations in the crypto markets. In a Chinese law enforcement action, 27 key individuals involved in the PlusToken crypto scheme have been arrested. Several Chinese news outlets reported that another 82 members of the scheme have been arrested.

In the last few days, speculations about massive manipulation of the cryptocurrency market have again made the rounds. Allegedly,...