European authorities have arrested 10 suspects for defrauding more than $6 million from dozens of investors.

The suspects displayed a pyramid scheme (Ponzi) using cryptocurrency targeting investors in several European countries, including France, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

These arrests came as the culmination of a wide-ranging investigation that began in 2018.

The investigation was led by Europol and Eurojust, European Union agencies focused on law enforcement and criminal justice cooperation.

in statement Journalist Eurojust indicated that the fraudulent program deceived 85 investors, most of them from France and Belgium, despite the fact that the scheme was implemented by Israel.

The scheme targeted its victims by phone and promised them incredible returns of up to 35% for a small investment.

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Following a classic pyramid scheme approach, the fraudsters repaid the early investors using money collected from later investors.

The initial payments affected many investors who placed a larger share of the money and recommended this program to their close ones.

After a while the payments stopped as always.

Criminals began directing all payments to bank accounts belonging to several shell companies in Asian countries and Turkey.

Investigations into the crime syndicate began in 2018, with Eurojust issuing investigation orders to authorities in the UK, Bulgaria, Spain, Hungary, Portugal and the Czech Republic to assist in the investigations.

In January last year, the authorities made their first arrests, bringing in four suspects who were arrested in France.

Europol’s partnership with the authorities in Luxembourg also managed to freeze $1.1 million.

The case is considered the latest case of fraud using cryptocurrency, and its owners are arrested.

Cryptocurrency fraud

In the month of January alone, dozens of fraudulent transactions were recorded, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars through crypto scams.

For example, the US Department of Justice recently charged two alleged scammers who used fake identities to raise more than $30 million via an initial coin offering (ICO).

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On the other hand, the US Securities and Exchange Commission accused ICOBox of issuing an unregistered ICO in which it raised $14 million.

Just days ago, a man in San Diego, California was arrested for defrauding $3.5 million from investors in a cloud mining scam.

The law enforcement action is a positive sign for the crypto industry as it indicates that the authorities are cracking down on scams using cryptocurrencies.

Once the industry gets rid of the scammers, it will attract more people and is likely to attract government support as well.

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