Thai authorities arrest five in 3,200-victim, $27M crypto scam

September 11, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Authorities

Victims lost over $27 million worth of Thai bhat after investing in a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platform.

Authorities in Thailand arrested five foreign nationals linked with a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platform that fleeced over $27 million from local investors.

According to an initial report from the Bangkok Post, Thailand’s Cyber Crime Investigation (CCIB) Bureau arrested four individuals from China and one from Laos for orchestrating a fraudulent investment scheme that duped more than 3,200 locals.

The CCIB began investing the operation after affected investors came forward in late 2022, claiming that they had lost investments made through bchgloballtd.com with the assistance of the United States Homeland Security Investigations and other international law enforcement agencies.

The five accused were arrested and charged for colluding to commit transnational crime, public fraud and money laundering.

The Office of the Attorney General in Thailand moved to prosecute the suspects in August 2022, before the anti-money laundering office confiscated 585 million baht worth of personal property from the accused.

CCIB spokesperson Kissana Phathanacharoen said that investment schemes continue to cause the most financial damage of scams reported in the country. Victims are said to invest life savings into the schemes or take out finance on homes or property.

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission issued new requirements in Jan. 2023 for virtual asset service providers in the country aimed at increasing investor protecting and safeguarding user funds held by custody providers.

As a recent Cointelegraph report uncovered, scammers have gone as far as targeting MetaMask users using government-owned website URLs to trick victims and access their crypto wallet holdings.

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UK uses Love Island star to warn finfluencers on crypto and investment schemes

April 7, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Advertising Standards Authority

The financial and advertising regulators posted a seven-part checklist to ensure these social media stars stay within the bounds of the law.

The financial and advertising regulators of the United Kingdom have teamed up to send a warning to social media “finfluencers” telling them to stop promoting illegal “get rich quick” schemes or face law enforcement.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Advertising Standards Authority (ACA) made reference to cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens in their April 6 statement, which laid out a seven-part checklist to ensure that finfluencers stay within the bounds of the law.

The checklist asks finfluencers to consider whether they’re the “right person” to be promoting the financial product and states that their followers may “lose all their money” from the investment. It also states:

“Don’t suggest to your followers that cryptoassets would be an easy investment decision or create any sense of urgency or FOMO.”

*A seven-part checklist aims to provide “finfluencers” with more clarity over what may constitute an illegal financial promotion. Source: FCA*

In addition to conducting “due diligence,” social media influences should seek approval of the FCA and ensure that the advertisement is legal, truthful and properly labeled as an advertisement under ASA rules.

The FCA and ACA strongly advised that influencers check ScamSmart to ensure that they’re not promoting an investment scam. “If in doubt, don’t promote”, the checklist’s slogan states.

It is a crime to unlawfully promote financial products or services which carries a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment and an unlimited fine:

“If your post breaks the rules, the ASA will take action.”

Sarah Pritchard, the FCA’s executive director, explained that there has been a spike in illegal financial promotions of late.

“They are often doing this without knowledge of the rules and without understanding of the harm they could cause their followers,” she added.

We've partnered with @ASA_UK and @SharonNJGaffka to help educate social media #influencers about the risks involved in promoting #financial products. https://t.co/IwQkcc90a9
— Financial Conduct Authority (@TheFCA) April 6, 2023

The FCA and ASA partnered with former U.K. Love Island contestant Sharon Gaffka to emphasize the risks that come with lucrative marketing schemes.

The FCA will also host an “open roundtable discussion” with influencer agents and the Influencer Marketing Trade Body in the coming months.

Across the channel, France is edging closer to banning French social media influencers from promoting cryptocurrencies and NFTs from unlicensed firms after the National Assembly’s economic committee voted in favor of an amendment proposal on March 23.

If passed, the new law would add crypto assets to a list of prohibited products, such as gambling and pharmaceuticals, that cannot be promoted by influencers.

Those found to violate the incoming law may also be subject to two years’ imprisonment with a fine of 30,000 Euros ($32,300).

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian, boxing legend Floyd Mayweather and internet celebrity Jake Paul are some of the most notable figures to have found themselves embroiled in allegedly promoting crypto investment schemes.

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CFTC

Jeremy Spence aka “Coin Signals” scammed around $5 million from 170 investors who were unaware their crypto was used to fund a Ponzi scheme.

A crypto trader who defrauded over 170 people was sentenced to 42 months in prison on May 11 for operating a series of cryptocurrency funds claiming to make big returns but in reality were losing money and instead operated as a Ponzi scheme.

The DOJ said that 25 year old Jeremy Spence had solicited millions through false representations, “including that Spence’s crypto trading had been extremely profitable when, in fact, Spence’s trading had been consistently unprofitable.”

Spence, who operated the social media channels for a crypto investment scheme called “Coin Signals” was handed the decision by United Stated District Judge Lewis Kaplan for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Spence was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay back his victims an amount of over $2.8 million.

Spence was arrested in January 2021 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and seperate civil charges were brought forward by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Spence pleaded guilty to commodities fraud in November 2021 for soliciting over $5 million from unwitting crypto investors by creating various cryptocurrency funds from November 2017 until April 2019 which he falsely claimed were making returns but in reality were making losses.

One example provided by the DOJ said Spence posted a message to an online chat group claiming one of the funds made a 148% return that month.

According to Law360 U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan who presided over the case said:

"The thing I was struck by was the stupidity of the people you gulled into investing with you, there are real-life consequences to these shenanigans and they are serious."

Seeking to make a profit investors would transfer crypto to Spence to invest but as his trades weren’t making gains he created fake account balances to hide the losses. Spence started operating a Ponzi scheme using funds from new investors to pay earlier investors, with estimates that around $2 million worth of cryptocurrencies were distributed in this manner.

In a statement to the court Spence told Judge Kaplan that he is “mortified” by his own behavior, apologizing to his investors and claimed was unqualified to trade the amount he was sent adding he “entered a world that [he] was completely unprepared for”.

Cointelegraph requested comment from Spence's legal representatives but did not receive a response within the time given.