South Korean authorities have reportedly arrested 215 individuals who are allegedly behind a cryptocurrency investment scam that defrauded thousands of victims.
Yonhap News reports that the suspected perpetrators, including a YouTuber with 620,000 subscribers, received 325.6 billion won, or around $231 million, from 15,304 people who were enticed to invest their money in crypto for high returns.
The YouTuber, identified only as Mr. A, and his cohorts are accused of operating fake investment consulting firms. They allegedly told the victims that they could gain profits 20 times their investments.
Most of the victims are middle-aged and elderly who were allegedly advised to sell their apartments or get a loan to buy crypto. They purportedly paid and lost as much as 1.2 billion won, or around $852,520, each.
The scheme reportedly involved 28 cryptocurrencies, six of which were issued by the suspects themselves and listed on overseas exchanges through brokers. The rest of the virtual assets have small trading volumes and little value.
The police say the modus is the largest coin investment fraud case in history. An official also warns investors to be cautious of similar schemes.
“If high profits are guaranteed by non-face-to-face investment recommendation, it is likely to be a fraud, so please be especially careful.”
Mr. A was arrested after initially fleeing to Australia via Hong Kong and Singapore. Authorities confiscated 22 Bitcoin (BTC) and 47.8 billion won, or around $34 million.
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