Spanish police arrest five over $542M crypto investment scheme
20 comments
·July 21, 2025miohtama
crote
Ah. Reading the HN title I was expecting something closer to a memecoin / rugpull maker getting arrested, but I guess rolling up a large 2025s Nigerian Prince gang isn't bad either.
I guess we'll have to wait a bit longer for a proper crypto scam rollup.
miohtama
It's mostly Chinese with suspected ties to the party. As long as Chinese Triads scam only foreigners, it is seen positive development for the party.
https://www.rfa.org/english/china/2025/01/13/china-hong-kong...
arealaccount
> that laundered €460 million ($540 million) from more than 5,000 victims across the world.
So they’re averaging just over $100k per victim, I wonder what the spread is
e1g
Almost certainly a couple of whales as they made the investigation happen.
PaulHoule
When I first starting seeing 419 scams in the 1990s I wondered "Who would expect $10M to fall out of the sky?" As these target the intersection of "rich" and "no common sense", it must be "someone who already had $10M fall out of the sky" and could be a case for more taxation because these people aren't in a position to put money to work in a way that benefits themselves and society.
jacquesm
'just'?
For some old person that could well be the difference between them having a normal life or becoming destitute. I really don't think that is 'just'.
Aurornis
The ‘just’ was in reference to rounding to a close whole number, not a judgment on the relative size of the theft.
tom_
"Just over N" means "slightly more than N".
neom
Has Ruja Ignatova largely gotten away with the OneCoin stuff? Don't hear much about it anymore. I googled around but not much since last year.
prettywoman
[dead]
soyNsurf
[flagged]
nickpinkston
Maybe they just want their Royal Fifth like the SEC, etc. do.
CBMPET2001
If that were the case then they wouldn't have shut down the scheme and arrested the perpetrators
crote
That is going to depend on the details, isn't it?
See for example the practice of civil forfeiture in the US, where the police is able to seize your property until you prove that it wasn't gained through crime. The proceeds go directly to the police department. So the more passers-by they harass, the sooner the "pennies from heaven" will fund their margarita machine! [0]
[0]: https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/phelps-county-seizing-sus...
CBMPET2001
I'm not sure how Spanish criminal law works, but even if it does work like in the US, the press release doesn't actually mention any seized funds or property at all
vkou
When the cops arrest someone stealing from a grocery, I too immediately assume that it's because they want one of the fifths he filched.
nickpinkston
This actually does happen for certain crimes in racketeering cases, and SEC/DOJ often run closer to the latter (ie small token fines, which are just the cost of doing business).
The difference being that SEC/DOJ are more worried that more than token fines to big corporations would cause political blowback for the agency and their careers.
The current collusion of this gov't with wealthy crypto interests seems like both of these: political blowback and direct insider kickbacks (TrumpCoin, TACO trade, etc.)
The linked statement from Europol is some weeks old, so this is old news
https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cryp...
Europol does not disclose it, but it is likely related to Myanmar pig butchering aka romance scam centers
https://thehackernews.com/2025/06/europol-dismantles-540-mil...